The Shame of the Sun
by LowkeyFailing
Summary: (was Noble Opulence) Dorothea who has always lived in the shadow of her father crosses paths with Monkey D. Luffy and co. Suddenly Dorothea is met with a new kind of family and she will do anything to protect it. Join her on her journey of self-discovery as she face much more than tangible set backs. {Sanji x OC}
1. Enter: Donquixote Dorothea

A blonde girl swiftly made her way through the crowded port town of Alabasta. She didn't exactly have a reason to be in the town at the moment, but with every step she took, she was closer to her goal. She walked with little purpose, moving with the flow of the crowd as not to attract any attention, keeping note of everyone around her. A mother with her son walked slightly behind her, talking about how excited they were to finally get some fresh fish. A couple walked ahead of her, arguing about whether they would live near her parent's house or his. The blonde girl made sure to keep note of every minuscule detail she could. After all, that was her job.

Deciding she had enough aimless wandering, the girl entered a local restaurant. The place was packed with only a few spots open. She picked a seat at the bar, hoping she could get through her lunch without much a hassle. Everything was going to plan until a boy with freckles decided to seat himself next to the blonde. He ordered his meal and started up a conversation with the bartender, which was perfectly fine for the blonde, but soon she got roped into his antics.

The freckled boy turned towards the blonde with a goofy smile on his face, "Have I seen you somewhere before? You look familiar."

"I've never seen you before, sorry. I travel frequently, so maybe we crossed paths at some point," the blonde replied, she figured ignoring the boy would draw more attention to her than amusing him for the time being.

"Maybe that's it. From your statement about traveling, I can only guess that you're not from Alabasta."

"You'd be correct. I was born in the North Blue, but ever since I was born I traveled with my family. How about you, Freckles-sa*?" The blonde studied his facial expression, she clearly recognized him as "Fire Fist" Ace. Now the question was: When will he realize who she is?

His face held disgust at first, but in a split second turned to fondness, "Hmm, I spent most of my childhood in the east blue, I lived on a cozy, little place called Dawn Island." He held his face in his hand with his arm propped up on the counter, "Oh, and just call me Ace."

The blonde grinned, "And I'm Dorothea." Once he heard her name, Ace instantly realized who he was talking to, the famed noble opulence. From then on, both Dorothea and Ace were on edge, wondering just what the other will do. "So, Ace-sa, tell me, what is a big shot like you doing in some dainty little port town?" Dorothea began to rhythmically tap her fingers against the counter as if to soothe herself.

Ace hesitated, "Hm, just searching for my little brother." He gave Dorothea another one of his famous grins.

Dorothea couldn't help but smile back, although it turned out to be more of a sinister smile rather than a genuine smile, "Looks like we're here for the same reason."

Ace gave the woman a confused look, "I didn't think you had any siblings. Well, at least any siblings that the government knows of."

"Siblings aren't always related by blood, Ace-sa. In the same way that those who you share a blood connection with aren't always your family."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Ace replied in a somewhat relaxed tone. The two had come to the realization that neither one of them were going to pull anything on the other. Their respective meals came soon after Ace's remark and the two began to make small talk. Bantering back and forth with the occasional witty remark. That was until Ace fell face first into his meal, shocking the waiter and fellow customers. The waiter was convinced Ace was dead, stating that he must have eaten a desert strawberry.

Dorothea sighed and placed her index finger and middle finger on Ace's neck, checking for a pulse. Sure enough Ace was still alive, she could even see his chest rising, he was fine. "You can all stop crowding around him, he's not dead. I can't tell if he fainted or just fell asleep, but he is most certainly not dead," the blonde told the crowd that formed around Ace. She became paranoid about the attention that was put on her due to Ace's unusual habit.

It took a few minutes, but soon Ace woke up. He was greeted to a crowd of concerned customers and staff. There was a woman who stood next to him, "Are you okay?" she asked. Ace, still dazed from waking up from his "nap", grabbed the poor woman's skirt and used it as a napkin to clean his face. The woman, disgusted, screamed as she yanked her skirt away from him and left.

Ace stared at the chef in front of him, who had joined Ace and Dorothea's conversation not long before Ace fell asleep, "Damn… I fell asleep."

Dorothea let out a small chuckle, "Does this happen often, Ace-sa?"

"Mmhmm," he hummed in response. Ace began to finish up his meal, Dorothea kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't fall asleep again. "Ahh, I'm full," Ace said as he bit into the final piece of his meal, "By the way, Oyasan, Dorothea, have either of you seen this guy in town?" He pulled out a wanted poster of a boy named Monkey D. Luffy. The chef and Dorothea both shook their heads.

"I really wish I could help you Ace-sa, but I have my own brother to keep an eye out for," Dorothea sighed.

"Does this brother of yours have a name?"

"Trafalgar Law. He's been making a name for himself and it's my duty to make sure he understands what he's getting in to," Dorothea's eyes darted to the right, recalling memories of days gone by.

"I guess you don't have a problem with eating in public," a foreign voice called out, "Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, second division. Portgas D. Ace." Dorothea whipped her head around to see who was talking to Ace. It was a man with two cigars in his mouth, he appeared to be in his 30's, but strangely he had gray hair. He was obviously a marine, but he didn't seem to notice Dorothea just yet.

The marine spoke once again, "What business does an infamous pirate like you have in this country?"

Ace lowered his drink to the table, a thick silence overtook the restaurant, Ace still stared down at his empty plate. "I'm searching," Ace replied, finally turning around to face the marine, "For my little brother." Even in the face of immediate danger, Ace was completely relaxed. Dorothea took note of this and wondered what trouble Ace could have gotten into in the past. Or maybe he was naturally this aloof. "So then… What should I do?" Ace broke the silence between him and the marine.

"Sit there and let me arrest you."

"Rejected. I'd rather not," Ace said slyly. Dorothea tried to stifle her laugh.

"Well, that's what I expected. Right now I am looking for a different pirate." Dorothea's eyes widened, but the marine didn't seem to be looking for her since his eyes were still focused on Ace.

"Then let me go," Ace reasoned.

"I can't do that…" The marine's hand began to emit smoke as he got ready to fight, "As long as I'm a marine… and you're a pirate."

Dorothea finally made herself known, "Really that's your only reason?" Both Ace and the marine's attention were centered on Dorothea now.

The marine narrowed his eyes, "Donquixote Dorothea… You're no longer under the protection of your father. You do realize what this means?"

Dorothea rolled her eyes, "Of course I do. Listen why don't you beat up Ace while I go and escape and we both pretend like this never happened, hmm?"

Ace smiled, "I wish you had some faith in me, Dorothea," he turned towards the marine, "pay her no mind, let's have some fun."

It looked as if a fight was about to start if it weren't for a boy to come barreling into the restaurant, slamming into the marine's back which made the marine and Ace go flying through multiple walls. The boy who had caused the commotion stood in the middle of the building cheering, "A restaurant! I finally found one!" Dorothea noticed the boy was wearing a straw hat and looked identical to Ace's little brother. He took Ace's seat and demanded some food.

Lighting up the cigarette that sat in her mouth, Dorothea could tell this kid was going to give her a headache. "Monkey D. Luffy, huh," she whispered to herself, but it seemed that the boy heard her.

"That's me! Do you know me or something?" Luffy asked, chowing down on the food he had ordered.

"No, not really, but I know someone who does," Dorothea replied with a grin. She was going to continue their little conversation, but both Ace and the marine made their way back to the restaurant. She could faintly hear Ace happily call out to Luffy, but it was cut off by the marine yelling "Straw Hat". _'Well, that solves one mystery. But what does that marine want with Luffy-sa?' _Dorothea thought.

The marine calmly walked up to Luffy, while Dorothea just rested her elbows on the counter ready to watch what was about to go down. "I've been looking for you, Straw Hat," the marine started, "I knew you'd come here, to Alabasta." Luffy continued to stuff his face full of food, mainly meat. "Stop eating!" the marine commanded Luffy, but he just continued to eat his lunch. _'These two brothers sure know how to make me laugh'_

After another minute of staring at the marine, Luffy finally recognized him. "You're that Smokey guy! What are you doing here!?" Luffy yelled as he spat out his food. That's when the chase ensued. First Luffy ran out of the restaurant after thanking the chef, then the marine rushed out of the restaurant as well, after that Ace got up and began to chase after his brother. _'This week has been pretty boring, this might just be just the spice it needed,_' Dorothea thought as she made her way out of the restaurant. She decided in order to keep up with the chaos she would need to look from above. Luckily, her Oto-Oto** no mi allowed her to do just that.

Dorothea sprang into the air, using the soundwaves around her to increase her height. She moved around the town by controlling the soundwaves around her in a way that allowed her to jump gracefully from place to place in the sky. She always liked to think of it as walking on air rather than shooting soundwaves to the ground at an intense speed in order to keep her afloat. The latter made it seem a lot more mechanical than it really was, she leaps through the air were graceful, not robotic or hectic.

Unfamiliar with the town and losing track of all three men, Dorothea was lost. She rested on a random roof, deciding where to look next, or if she should even continue to hunt down Luffy. Dorothea came to the conclusion that dealing with the marines would only make her life harder so she lept to the sky once again, making sure she was a little above roof level as to stay unnoticed.

Just as Dorothea jumped into the air, she noticed a strange corner. There were two people along with a strange bird. They were surrounded by various supplies. Dorothea was going to ignore them, until one of the two noticed her, "An angel! An angel has come down from the heavens to grace us with her presence!" The other person on the ground appeared to be a blue haired woman, who looked to be embarrassed by her friend's outburst.

Dorothea landed as gracefully as she took off, ending up right next to the man who called her an angel. "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not an angel of any sorts. But I could use your help," she said, glancing over to the blue haired woman as well.

The man, who she noticed had a strange curled eyebrow, was eager to help her out, "I'm glad to help you anytime. Tell me what you need and it will be done!" The man grabbed one of Dorothea's hands and held it between his.

Dorothea couldn't help but laugh, "Shufufufufu! Thank you, Eyebrow-sa! Have you two seen a shirtless man, a marine, and a boy wearing a straw hat by any chance?" The two strangers' eyes widened upon hearing her describe the last individual.

The man with the weird eyebrow took a step back from Dorothea, "Why would you want to know where they are?" Dorothea could sense the tension in the air.

"Honest answer: I just want to see what trouble that Straw Hat-sa gets into. But I'd rather not get involved with the Marines right now, so I guess I would be avoiding them."

This seemed to calm the two down, the man let out a breath of relief, "I'm sorry, but we haven't seen my captain, in fact, we lost track of him a while ago."

"Well, thank you anyway…"

"Sanji."

"Thank you, Sanji-sa. Oh, by the way, your captain is being chased down by a very angry marine captain," Dorothea informed him, but his face held no surprise or shock. The woman beside them didn't seem worried either, Dorothea turned her attention towards the woman "I'm guessing this isn't an unusual occurrence for your captain, huh?"

The blue haired girl let out a sigh, "Sadly, you're correct." Dorothea was about to leave when four other people appeared. They seemed to be the rest of Luffy's crew.

"We've got to get out of here. The Marines are here," an orange haired girl spoke, she had an air of confidence which Dorothea admired. No one seemed to question Dorothea's presence until a green haired swordsman pointed her out.

"Are we going to ignore this blonde girl over here?"

Sanji was quick to introduce Dorothea, "You mean this lovely angel! She's…" That's when Sanji realized he never asked her what her name was.

"Shufufufufu! I'm Dorothea, I was just trying to avoid the marines and get out of this town. Turns out I ran into your captain not too long ago."

Sanji smiled, "See, Marimo, Dorothea means no harm, she appeared from the heavens to help us find our captain!"

"Dorothea…" the green haired man's eyes widened, "I know that name, you're Donquixote Dorothea. I've seen your bounty before."

Dorothea smiled, "Ah, so you really are the pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro." She paused for a moment, "I would love to stay longer, but I should leave before the marines remember I'm here." That was until Luffy had found his crew while still being chased by the Marines.

"Oh! Everyone is over there!" He yelled as he ran towards his crew and Dorothea. His crew realized the trouble they were in and started to gather their supplies and take off. Dorothea ran with them, using the sound emitted by the Marines and Luffy's crew to add a bit of spring to her step.

The Straw Hats stopped at one point as the marine captain she met earlier attacked Luffy. Dorothea kept running, she didn't hear any screams of pain so she assumed they were fine, she just needed to be as far away from the marines as possible. She was so far away from the commotion that she could no longer use any sound waves from town to help her run faster, but by that point, she was already near the dock. There was a boat that had a funny looking figurehead; Dorothea couldn't tell whether it was a ram or a goat, but she loved it anyway.

She jumped onto the ship using the sound of the crashing waves to increase the height of her jump. Once she landed, she decided to just wait to see who the ship belonged to. Dorothea traveled the world via unconventional means, being a devil fruit user she was in no position to allow herself to swim or fall overboard so she either used her Oto-Oto no Mi to travel above the sea by forcing soundwaves towards the sea and in turn boosting her higher into the sky and in the direction she desired, or she charmed her way into letting a pirate crew let her travel with them for a short amount of time. Of course, there was a third option, but she didn't like to use it before the other two options: blackmail. Ever since she was a child, she was trained to acquire blackmail on almost everyone she met, as her memory was near perfect.

Deciding against wasting her energy by traveling using her Oto-Oto no Mi, she patiently waited for the pirate crew to show up. And sure enough, they did. To Dorothea's surprise, it was the Straw Hats once again.

Luffy saw her on the boat and immediately shouted at her, "Hey! You're that girl from the restaurant, right!?"

Sanji looked at his captain confused before looking up at the woman that stood on their boat. When he saw who it was, he pushed his captain out of the way, "Dorothea-chan has graced us once more with her presence!"

Dorothea scoffed, "Still not an angel, but I do need one more favor from you guys…"

Zoro laughed at this, "Really? You need a favor from us?"

She nodded, "Mmhmm, I need you guys to let me travel with you for a bit."

Sanji was quick to reply, "Of course, Doroth-"

"We don't even know her!" Zoro snapped and turned back towards the strange woman, "Why would a Donquixote need a ride from us. Don't you have your own ship to go back to?"

Dorothea shook her head, "You see this bag on my back? That's my ship." She pointed towards the dark red backpack that looked to be filled to the brim with items.

Still unimpressed Zoro asked another question, "Well how did you end up on this island then?" Dorothea decided it would be easier to demonstrate than to explain everything, so she jumped up into the air once again, and slowly descended onto the ground in front of Zoro.

"See, Marimo!" Sanji exclaimed, "She's an angel!"

"She's hardly an angel, more like a demon if you ask me."

Sanji narrowed his eyes at Zoro, "Well go thing no one asked you, shitty Marimo."

Dorothea turned her attention towards Luffy, "So do you think you could give me a lift?"

Luffy gave her a giant smile, "Of course!"

**Thank you for reading this first chapter! Just so y'all aren't too lost, here's a bit of context to some of the story.**

_* - Dorothea ends names with "-sa" because as a child she never knew when to refer to her family as "-sama" or just "-san" so she would often just say "-sa" and hope someone would help her out, but it grew into a habit of hers (she views majority of the donquixote pirates as family as those are the people she grew up with)_

_** - Oto-oto no mi, aka the noise-noise fruit, allows the user to control any nearby soundwaves and use them to the user's advantage. The user also becomes a sound person, their body can morph into soundwaves at will. Dorothea mainly uses this ability to walk in the air like she does in this chapter, but she can also use it offensively by focusing soundwaves into a bullet like projectile or overloading an enemy's senses by forcing high pitched soundwaves to surround the enemy. _


	2. Early Morning Calls

Sailing on the open sea with the Straw Hats felt jarring for Dorothea to say the least. The black mast, adorned with a cute skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat, billowed in the cozy wind. The figurehead seemed to have its own personality; no, the entire ship had a unique personality that fits in perfectly with the Straw Hats. Dorothea let her mind wander to her father's ship: the pink flamingo figurehead that eerily resembled her father, the gigantic flamingo wings on the side of the ship always felt like a protective cover to Dorothea, and she couldn't forget the mast with proudly displayed an ominous crossed out smile for a jolly roger. It was her home.

Before Dorothea could let her mind linger on the past a few voices brought her back into reality, "Your brother!?"

Dorothea looked over towards the commotion, the Straw Hats crowded around their captain, who seemed as relaxed as ever. "Yup, he's my brother!" Luffy beamed.

Zoro was the first to respond, "Well, I'm not surprised you have a brother, but what is he doing here in the grandline?"

"He's a pirate! He's out looking for the One Piece."

Dorothea jumped into the conversation, "Wait, so both of you are pirates looking for the One Piece… Doesn't that create some rivalry between the two of you? Hatred?"

Luffy just gave Dorothea a dumbstruck look, "We're brothers! How could we hate each other?"

"Forget I asked, Luffy-sa," Dorothea looked away from the Straw Hat captain with distant eyes, "It's still funny how you both ended up eating a devil fruit. I assumed it was unplanned."

"I know, I was surprised too!" Luffy gave a hearty laugh, "I bet with his devil fruit Ace is totally strong! I mean, he was strong when we were kids, but now he's like mega strong. I never won against him as a kid, not even once." Luffy's eyes started to widen thinking about just how far his brother had advanced since he left Dawn Island, "But I bet I could beat him now!"

"Who could you beat now?" A shirtless, cowboy hat wearing Ace appeared right behind Luffy, sporting his usual cheeky grin.

"Ace!" Luffy cheered, welcoming his brother with a big smile, "You finally get to meet my crew!"

Ace's eyes moved from Luffy to the crew that stood behind him, taking in each individual who decided to join his little brother, "Thanks, for taking care of my idiot brother." The crew mumbled a few "no kidding"s and "it's no problem"s in response. Ace looked back to Luffy, "I'm here to complete a little task, so I thought I'd try and meet up with you. But, first I gotta ask you a question: will you come join the Whitebeard Pirates? With your friends too, of course."

"No way," Luffy replied flatly, causing his older brother to burst out laughing.

"I expected that, thought I'd just ask anyway!"

Dorothea stepped forward, "So what exactly are you doing here Ace-sa? I thought you were just out to look for your brother? What is this little task you mentioned?"

Ace responded by giving her a smirk, "So am I to believe your also just looking for your brother? No other reason you're out in the open?" Dorothea didn't respond, she only faded back into the background, her arms crossed.

Ace retold the story of his subordinate murdering another crew member in cold blood and how it was his duty to find him and take him down. "It's the biggest sin a pirate can commit, murdering your own brother." As much as Dorothea would have liked to deny it, she was shaking. It wasn't noticeable, but Ace's words made old memories resurface. She carefully slipped away, trying to figure out the best place to calm down in. Unfamiliar with the ship, she ended up in the kitchen.

Taking a seat, Dorothea allowed the memories of that fateful day to occupy her mind. Her father's bright pink feathered jacket. The snow falling ever so peacefully. Her uncle standing there beaten and bloody. The gun. The biggest sin a pirate can commit. She always tried to argue with herself. Her uncle had been a marine and was a spy, he was the one to commit the first sin. But he's the reason her brother is alive. He would have turned in his own brother and family to the marines. He always was there to comfort her, he promised her he would do everything to protect her.

It wasn't long before the door to the kitchen was opened once again. Dorothea quickly whipped away the tears that had formed. She tried to pretend that nothing had ever happened, looking at the door she realized that it was Sanji who entered the kitchen.

"So this is where you went, Dorothea-chan! Can't say I'm not delighted to have such a beautiful woman in my kitchen, but why did you disappear on us like that? I got a bit worried that you left."

"I just needed to clear my head Sanji-sa. I appreciate your concern though," Dorothea gave him a genuine smile.

"That smile fits you better than those tears!" Sanji proclaimed as if it was nothing.

Dorothea's eyes widened, "Did you… How did you…"

Sanji sighed, "You were shaking earlier and now I find you alone in the kitchen with red eyes. I won't pry, but it hurts me to see such a lovely girl cry all alone."

"Don't you think it's pathetic? Why would you bother helping someone you don't even know?"

Sanji's face dropped, "Dorothea-chan…"

The tears were beginning to form in her eyes again, "Sanji-sa, would you mind pretending this never happened? Let's just pretend that never happened and we can continue our day as usual."

Sanji understood that pressing the issue further would only drive Dorothea away from him, "Would you like anything to eat Dorothea-chan?" Just like that, he changed back into the happy-go-lucky, lovesick chef.

"Anything with shrimp in it, please."

"Some shrimp scampi coming up!"

While waiting for her meal, Dorothea spent time with the Straw Hats and Ace, enjoying how playful each member of the crew was. They spent their time joking with one and another, Dorothea began to realize how much of a family they were. With Monkey D. Luffy as your captain, how could they not become family? She smiled to herself, she enjoyed watching the crew goof around from afar.

Before she could fully relax, Ace approached her, "I don't mean to be rude-"

"That's a great start," Dorothea interrupted, her brows furrowed.

His eye twitched, "Listen, you never answer me before. What are you really doing here?"

Dorothea leaned back against the rail of the boat, slightly biting down on the cigarette in her mouth, "I guess I'm here to restart. Yeah… That's what I'll call it."

Ace narrowed his eyes, "So long as you don't involve this crew, I don't care what you call it."

Dorothea removed the cigarette from her mouth, breathing out a trail of smoke, "As much as I have grown fond of this crew, they still need time to grow."

"Aren't you still apart of your father's crew? I thought you were just on temporary leave or something of the sort?"

"I'm going to be honest, Ace-sa. I have no clue. I never formally left the crew, but I'm sure my father is not happy with my sudden disappearance."

This shocked the freckled boy, "Wait, you never told your father you were leaving!?"

Dorothea turned her head away from the boy, "I can't keep living under his wing, blind as to what the rest of the world is like." Ace remained silent, processing what the girl just told him. Both of them focusing on the Straw Hat members in front of them goofing around. Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper kept downing bottle after bottle of beer, toasting to anything and everything under the sun. Dorothea overheard them toast to them meeting her which brought a slight smile to her face. Unluckily for her, Usopp noticed her watching them.

"Dorothea-san! Come join us! We've got plenty of beer!"

She was about to politely decline his offer but was nudged forward by the freckled boy next to her. She begrudgingly moved towards the trio of slightly tipsy pirates. As she was about to join them, a certain blond haired cook announced that lunch was ready, and with that Luffy and co. went rushing towards the kitchen. Dorothea breathed out a sigh of relief and made her way to the kitchen like the others.

Sure enough, Dorothea was presented with the best looking shrimp scampi she had ever seen. She was worried that it was all look and no taste, but upon tasting the meal, she found herself being happily surprised. It had been the best shrimp scampi she had ever had.

"So, Dorothea-chan, do you like my cooking?" Sanji asked.

Usopp raised an eyebrow, "Why not ask Ace what he thinks as well-"

"Shut up!" Sanji yelled at Usopp, "Let Dorothea-chan answer the question."

"Sanji-sa, if I was anymore impulsive I would marry you right here, right now," Dorothea casually replied. The blond chef fainted as soon as she finished her sentence. The gazes of all of the Straw Hats were on her. "Oh, was that a bit too much?"

* * *

Soon night fell and Dorothea was given a spare hammock to sleep in. THere she slept until a certain ringing woke her up.

_Purupurupurupurupurupurupuru_

She attempted to gracefully climb out of her hammock but ended up falling out of it with a loud thump. Picking herself off the ground, she made her way to her backpack, sifting through her items before pulling out her Den Den Mushi. Before she answered it, she left the room, hoping that she didn't wake Nami up already.

Still unfamiliar with the ship, Dorothea made her way to the only place she knew, the kitchen. Taking a seat at the table, Dorothea answered her Den Den Mushi. A familiar voice rang out from the small snail.

"_Dorothea…"_

"Yes, Otou-sama?"

"_Have you had enough of your little temper tantrum? Your family really does miss you."_

"And I, you, but I need to do this for myself. I need to prove I am more than just your daughter."

Her father was silent before responding once again, _"Then don't come back until you've made a name for yourself."_

"I never planned to."

"_Just don't turn out like Law. I would hate to lose you as well. But we both know that just because we're family doesn't mean I can trust you."_ Dorothea stayed silent for a second. _"Oh I forget, that's still a sore subject to you."_

She could hear the taunting voice, an almost mocking tone, "Oji-sama… I still can't believe he was a spy."

"_That's what made him a good one. He made us believe he cared for us, Dorothea, but he was planning to toss us aside."_

Dorothea was about to respond when a familiar cook entered the room. He almost didn't notice the blonde girl sitting in the dark. "Oh, it's just you, Dorothea-chan! Sorry to have startled you. I'm going to start breakfast now, so please don't mind me."

"_Seems like you've found yourself some friends. How cute."_

"I'm simply staying with a crew for the day, I'll be gone by the afternoon," Dorothea responded in a hushed tone, not wanting a certain cook to overhear her conversation. "Otou-sama… How is everyone? I know Baby 5-chan might not be handling my leave very well. I just… I worry about all of them."

"_Baby 5 has been distraught ever since you left. As I said before, your family misses you. I will inform them that you won't be returning home soon."_

Home. She hated calling Dressrosa home. She knew what her father did and every day spent in that country reminded her of what her family did. Of what she did. Her father was a false king, and she a false princess. The people of Dressrosa treating them like heroes, like saints. It sickened her, she couldn't stand being in that country. How she wishes she could go back to the days of her father traveling through the North Blue. When her uncle was still alive when her siblings still held some innocence when her family felt like a true family and not just a shadow of what it once was.

Her thoughts got interrupted by the sound of her Den Den Mushi hanging up. There were no goodbyes in her family, only promises.

"Oi, Sanji-sa," Dorothea called out, raising her voice, "How much of that did you really hear?" He was currently frying some eggs on the stove, pretending not to hear Dorothea's question. She called out to him once again with a smirk on her face, "Really, I basically proposed to you yesterday during lunch and now you ignore me? I don't think that's very gentlemen like, do you?"

That caused the chef to almost faint once again, but he quickly composed himself, "I would never ignore you, Dorothea-chan. I just felt it would be rude to intrude on your personal life." Unbeknownst to Dorothea, the chef had a stream of blood run down his nose thinking of what she told him yesterday.

"So, how much did you hear?" She asked, tapping her fingers against the table.

"I think I heard most everything. Your uncle was a spy?" His voice was soft, full of sympathy.

She sighed, "He was working for the marines. My father wants to label him as a pure traitor who never cared for us, but he risked his life for my brother. He tried to scare the other kids away so that they wouldn't have to be raised on a pirate ship."

Sanji had paused his cooking and went over to where Dorothea sat, placing his hand on her shoulder, "Nothing in life is ever black and white. The world isn't just wrong or right. And sometimes it's hard to deal with that. I'm sure your uncle was wonderful, and he did what he saw as right. No one can fault him for that."

"Thank you, Sanji-sa."

"Also I'll put some shrimp in your breakfast omelet."

"Sanji-sa, you better stop with that or I will get down on one knee right now."

Sanji felt as if he was floating and skipped back to the stove with hearts in his eyes, "Dorothea-chan you really know how to make a man feel special!"

After breakfast is when Dorothea decided to say goodbye to the Straw Hats. No not goodbye, a promise. Most of the crew were gathered in the front of the ship, gathered around the strange blonde girl. Luffy was the first one to say anything.

"Oi, Doro, you should join my crew! That way you don't have to leave!" the boy suggested.

Sanji was the first to agree, "Spending more time with Dorothea-chan sounds heavenly!"

Zoro, clearly annoyed, retorted, "You barely know the girl, shitty cook."

Dorothea let out a chuckle, "Shufufufu! I'll have to decline your request right now, Straw Hat-sa. But.." This got the attention of most the crew, especially Sanji and Luffy. "If you prove to me your crew is something special, I'll consider joining you. I want to hear stories of the famous Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, ya hear? That's when I'll join your crew."

Luffy cheered and jumped into the air, "Yosh! Another crewmate!"

Nami whacked the back of her captain's head, "Idiot, she's not joining us yet."

Sanji was over the moon, "My sweet, Dorothea-chan will return to me!"

Dorothea stared harshly into Luffy's eyes, "Once you show me that joining this crew is worth it, that's when I'll come back and join, that's a promise." Her face relaxed and she gave Luffy a playful wink, "I know joining you crew means I'll help you on your journey to become pirate king, but I'm not a huge fighter. I'm more of an informant if you are okay with that."

Luffy stared at her blankly, "Informant?" At that moment, Luffy's crew lost hope for their captain.

"Um, think of it like this, I gather information for you so you can understand who you are up against. It'll help you stay a few steps ahead of your opponents. I think it would be useful for you to have once considering you don't seem to be very up to date on the world," Dorothea explained.

"I think I understand now," Luffy smiled, "But, Doro, what is your dream?"

"Huh?" Dorothea was shocked. She looked down into Luffy's eyes, he seemed genuinely interested.

"Everyone on this crew has a dream their working towards. I want to help you achieve your dream as well!"

Dorothea wasn't used to someone supporting her like Luffy was, "You know I've never had someone ask me what my dream is." She looked at each of the Straw Hats, carefully examining their expressions. Leaning in close to Luffy, she held out her hand, her pinky extended. "Pinky promise you won't laugh?"

Luffy gave her an odd look but held her pinky with his own. "Why would I laugh?"

"Shufufu! I knew there was a reason I liked you, Luffy-sa!" She bellowed, "You see all my life I've only ever gotten to write about other pirates and anybody who my Father deemed a threat. My talent for writing has gone downhill… That's why I'd like to write an awe-inspiring epic. The thing is I need some references for this grand tale and the freedom to write it. Do you think your story will be worthy of being the basis to my story?" She explained, her eyes lighting up when she spoke of her dream to write. Day in and day out, Dorothea wrote about various people and their weaknesses, their habits, their strengths. For once she wanted to write something for herself. She wanted to make a positive impact with her writing, maybe inspire the future generation with the tales of the current generation.

"No way! You want to write about my journey! That's so cool!" Luffy cheered, brining her in for a hug.

Dorothea tensed up at the unexpected touch, "Why, of course! I believe it's you who's been traveling the world proclaiming you're going to be the future pirate king. Who better to write about than the expeditions of the future pirate king?" She released herself from Luffy's grip, "That's why you've got to prove to me our voyage together will be worth it." She said that to Luffy as much as to herself. In all honesty, she would have joined Luffy right then and there, his genuine smile was intoxicating, and his total support of his crew seemed too good to be true. Dorothea just needed more time on her own, away from her Father, before she could join the crew in good faith.

"Then next time we meet, you'll totally join my crew!" Luffy exclaimed. The rest of the crew all cheered and wished Dorothea safe travels.

Before Dorothea left, she pulled Sanji aside and smirked as she leaned in closer to him and whispered, "What happened yesterday and this morning stays between us, okay? Oh, and I can't wait to come back to this ship and have another one of your meals if I'm ready to marry you now, imagine what will happen when we met again?"

Sanji was speechless, but was soon blown away by a massive nosebleed, "Anything for you Dorothea-chan!" His little stunt caused Dorothea to let out a small chuckle.

With that Dorothea stood atop the railing of the ship and gave a little wave to the crew before jumping off board into the sky. Skipping throughout the air, using the sound of the Straw Hats cheering to increase her speed. The weather was calm for the rest of the day allowing Dorothea a full day of travel.

She wondered what the Straw Hats will be like the next time she sees them. Will there be more members? Will those members like her? What if the crew forgot about her? No. Luffy wouldn't forget her, she reasoned with herself. Now it was time to work on herself. To prove she is someone worth remembering, and not just because of who she is related to. To prove Donquixote Dorothea was a pirate that would not be feared, but respected and looked to as a symbol of hope.


	3. The Return of the Strawhats

**Hey guys! Just a little background info before we start the chapter! These next couple of chapters will be a mini-arc of sorts to show off Dorothea and for her to kind of earn her place as a Straw hat. You can find my reference for the island this chapter takes place in on my Tumblr! **

**Also, I feel like I should mention that Dorothea is 6'4" making her the third tallest Straw Hat (It may seem really tall for a girl, but remember her family- Doflamingo is ~10ft so I think I'm being pretty generous in making her just above 6ft)**

**~Thanks for reading~**

* * *

Months had passed since the last time Dorothea saw the Straw Hats. On her journey, she had stumbled upon a tiny island in the grand line where she would make her new home. Or at least her home for the time being. The island was home to a rare type of tree called Immerot; the tree only produced bright red leaves making it look like autumn year round. They held no special properties nor were they worth any beli, but they were symbolic to the citizens of the island. Akahajito is what they called the island, known to be skipped over for more important nearby islands which held more wealth and resources.

Being ignored by the world never bothered the citizens of Akahajito. They performed their small little community. The town they lived in, Staubstat, was not only the capital of the island but the only long time successful city on Akahajito. Staubstat relied on its miners, every day over half of the population of Staubstat/Akahajito left the safety of their homes to trek over to the mines to unearth valuable minerals that they would sell to the wandering pirate or marine, really whoever ventured into their home. The town was beginning to fall apart due to the financial strain of being excluded from interisland commerce.

Dorothea attempted to help the townsfolk in whatever way she could and in the process, she began to grow fond of the tiny island. At first, she only meant to stay for a week at most, she ended up staying in Akahajito for over a month. She grew close to some of the inhabitants, namely a grumpy, old butcher named Helmut. Helmut hated Dorothea at first, refusing to let her buy any of his products, saying she'd just bolt out the door if he handed her the meat she wanted. After a few more incidents, Helmut began to warm up to the incessant girl. It started off with him not yelling at her when she entered his store, then he offered her tips on how to cook specific meat, and now Helmut would cook a special dinner for Dorothea, showing her family secrets.

Today was one of those days. Dorothea was seated at the table Helmut prepared for them, listening to Helmut go off about these two kids that keep bothering him while he's working. He always liked to complain while cooking, said it gave the food the extra spice it needed, but Dorothea could tell he just liked to rant.

"You don't understand, Dorothea. These kids are demons, I tell ya! I say you better hop on over to another island and get us some holy water for those two," Helmut complained.

Dorothea smirked, "Don't you guys have some magical stone that can remove the evil from them? Or is that stone only available to foreigners?"

"Now's not the time to joke. I swear those two demons will be the death of me. And where would that leave you, Dorothea? No more home cooked meals every week."

Dorothea held the back of her hand against her forehead and closed her eyes, pretending to become faint, "How could I ever survive?" She opened one of her eyes, "Have I mentioned you're the second best cook in the world?"

"About 100 times since you've landed on the godforsaken island. You never shut up about that perfect chef. What was the poor guy's name again? Shoji? Sanbi? Am I close?"

This caused Dorothea to giggle, "Oh so I mention him over 100 times, but you can't remember his name?"

Helmut shot the girl a dirty look, "I'm an old man, you can't expect me to remember everything."

"Sanji. That was his name. Funny, little cook. Always head over heels for any girl in his sight, but damn could he cook," Dorothea leaned back in her seat, staring at the wooden ceiling.

Helmut let out a little chuckle and whispered, "Anyone is small next to you."

Dorothea sat back up, crossing her arms, "It's not my fault everyone on this island is under 178cm! Maybe there's a stone to help you guys-"

"Enough with the stones, Dorothea! We only tried to scam you a few times, yesh," Helmut placed the plate of food on the counter allowing it some time to cool down before the two of them ate. He made his way to the table he set up, sitting across from Dorothea, "While the food is cooling off we need to talk."

The blonde girl that sat across from him began to sweat, "Talk about what, Old Man?"

"I'm not trying to force you, but I think it's time you continued on your journey. You told us that you would only be staying for a week and it's been more than a month, Dorothea."

Dorothea huffed, "So? I like it here. I'm not bothering anyone here."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. All I'm trying to say is that you're still young and you should use that time to travel the world instead of staying at some dying island," Helmut sighed.

Dorothea slammed her hands on the table, "You don't get to control me, okay!? You're not my father, so don't try to act like it! You don't know what my life was really like before I came to this island, only what I've told you." The girl stood up and made a break for the exit, she didn't want to storm off, but she need time to cool down.

The sun had already set, the stars shined brightly in the sky, and Dorothea enjoyed the silence of nature. The tall, red trees looming over her acting as a protective barrier. She knew that Helmut was right, she would have to leave eventually. As much as she loved this cozy little town, she needed to continue to grow and she couldn't do that on Akahajito.

She found herself wandering into the middle of Staubstat, a small town square filled with vendors selling whatever they can. Most of the vendor's sold various gems and rocks, all claiming their gems were special and had magical properties unlike the ones at the other stores. It was all bullshit. Helmut informed Dorothea that a few months ago is when the island's economic crisis really started to show, so the citizens had grown desperate. The merchants would try to out yell each other, hoping that maybe their incessant screaming would attract some customers. Today was a bit different, Dorothea couldn't hear any screaming, in fact upon entering the town square she noticed all the vendors were crowded around something.

Dorothea noticed the town mayor, Juergen or as most of the town called him, Ojii-san, rushing over to where she was standing. "Dorothea! Just in time! Some pirates just landed and the market is going crazy, I need you to help me calm everything down," the mayor instructed, his right hand firmly grasping his cane while the other motioned wildly to the crowd behind him.

"Fine, okay, I'll do it, Ojii-san. But just this once," Dorothea placed her hand on her hips.

Juergen placed his left hand on his chest, "Thank you, my dear!"

Dorothea placed her hands over the mayor's ears and took a deep breath in, "Return to your stores!" she yelled using her Oto-Oto no mi to amplify the sound waves into an almost deafening volume directed directly towards the crowd. Most of the vendors got the gist, but there were still a few that didn't move. "If you do not go back to your stores, we will close your shop for the rest of the night!" She screeched once again, bluffing, but it still scared the vendors enough to move away from the group of pirates.

She couldn't believe her eyes when she caught sight of a small boy wearing a straw hat, a feline like ginger girl, and an adorable little reindeer. It was the Straw Hats. Well, three of the Straw Hats. Luffy didn't seem to notice that he was missing a couple of members. Plus, there was a new face among them, a girl with shoulder length black hair.

"Doro! Is that you!?" Luffy exclaimed, running up to the blonde girl, wrapping his rubber arms around her pulling her in for a hug. He turned back to his crew giving them a bright smile like usual.

"Shufufufu! It's good to see you too, Luffy-sa!" Dorothea attempted to pat the boy on his back, but her arms were glued to her sides due to Luffy's hug, "Where is the rest of your crew, Luffy-sa? Roronoa, Sanji, and uhhh, the blue haired girl are all missing."

Luffy released her from his iron grip, "Hmm, I didn't notice they were missing. Oh, and Vivi isn't with us anymore! But we gained two new crewmates in the time you were gone, I think you'll like them!"

The others quickly caught up to their captain, yelling at him for running off once again. Nami was the first to comment on Dorothea's presence, "Wait, you're the girl from Alabasta? It's crazy to think we would run into you here out of all places."

The girl with black hair, who Dorothea had never seen before spoke up, "Oh, you know her? What a small world." She tried to conceal a little chuckle with her hand.

The blonde smiled at the new girl, "The name's Dorothea, it's nice to meet you. I promised this crazy idiot that I would be his informant once he shaped up."

"I think you'll be pleased with his progress, he's come quite far," the girl gave a gentle smile looking over at her captain, "And my name's Nico Robin. I'm the crew's archeologist."

"I hate to interrupt," it was Nami who was holding Luffy by his shirt as he was trying to run off again, "But Luffy is instant that we get some food and while I normally would want to stay and wait for the others… I'm hungry as well." Nami's eyes locked onto Dorothea, "Hey, Dorothea-kun, you think you could direct us to the cheapest restaurant?" She used a sickeningly sweet voice that made Dorothea cringe.

"Nothing's really cheap here…" Dorothea's eyes widened, "Actually I have something better. I was about to have dinner at a friend's house and he always makes extra, I'm sure he wouldn't mind cooking for you guys." Before she and the crew took off, she yelled at the mayor, "If any more pirates make their way here direct them towards Helmut's!" The mayor gave her a thumbs up and continued to watch over the town square.

Helmut's house was a little ways beyond the city border, he often commented about how much he enjoyed the silence and peace that came with living away from the town. That still didn't stop him from inviting Dorothea to stay at his place once he found out she had been sleeping in trees ever since she arrived since the town didn't have any hotels. His house was actually more of a cabin as it was made completely out of wood and was partially covered in moss giving it a magical aura.

Standing right outside the house was Helmut himself, leaning against the front door, taking a long drag of his cigarette. "Did you get all of your anger out," He said, not looking up from the ground, "Thought I'd take a little smoke break while you went out and calmed down."

Dorothea scoffed, "Listen, it was wrong of me to blow up on you like that, and for that, I apologize, but I think you should look up, old man."

Helmut did as the young girl said and noticed the strangers behind her, "Did you form a gang or something while you were out?"

"Nice guess, but sadly these are just my future crewmates," Dorothea responded as she crossed her arms.

"Future?"

Luffy butted in, "She promised to be my informant one day!" Helmut was shocked and looked towards the blonde girl who he had spent the entire month with, never once had she mentioned joining a crew. The Straw Hats were the perfect push for Dorothea, Helmut thought, they would be the gentle nudge that would finally bring her to leave the island.

"Informant, huh?" Helmut commented, "Sounds interesting. Well, why don't you all come in and eat, I should have enough for everyone here and then some! I tried a new Gyudon recipe and would be an honor if Dorothea's future crew got to try some of it."

"Gyudon… That means I'll get to eat some meat!" Luffy yelled throwing his arms into the sky.

Helmut welcomed the crew into his cabin and set up the table for four extra guests, but Dorothea set out another four plates to Helmut's confusion. "We are still missing the swordsman, the best cook in the world, an insane liar, and another new crewmate," Dorothea explained.

"Well, they better find their way here before their food gets cold. Or maybe that would be a good thing, then I can see the oh so amazing cook in action," Helmut joked causing Dorothea to pout.

"Just don't be a sore loser when he blows you away with his cooking. I'm seriously that boy has got a lot of nerve cooking that well."

"I know, I know," Helmut said defensively, "I just can't believe you said you were prepared to marry him for his cooking."

Dorothea smirked, "I thought you would applaud me for marrying for talent rather than money."

Robin let out a slight laugh, "It looks cook-san has a fan."

"A fan?" Helmut huffed, "More like a stalker."

Dorothea jabbed Helmut in the side with her elbow, "I am not a stalker, shitty old man." As if on cue, two familiar voices could be heard outside.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Of course it is, do you see any other old cabin nearby?"

"I'm just saying, I think we went the wrong way."

"You're the reason, we got lost in the first place!"

Luffy stopped eating and shot up, "That's Zoro and Sanji! They made it!" He quickly ran to open the door, yelling "In here guys!" Soon enough, all of the Straw Hats were crammed into Helmut's small cabin. Luffy wasted no time introducing everyone to Helmut, "These guys are Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Franky!" He turned towards Dorothea, "Franky is the other new crewmate, Doro! He's our shipwright."

Dorothea winked at the blue haired cyborg, "Nice to meet you, Franky-sa"

Franky gave her a thumbs up, "It's super nice to meet you too, Doro-san!"

The crew chatted while eating dinner, there was never a dull moment with the Straw Hats. Always so lively and friendly. Dorothea was telling the crew about all of her adventures since they last met: jumping from island to island, running away from more marines, meeting up with other pirates, almost getting killed by said pirates and the marines.

"And now I'm on this tiny, little island. I'm not complaining though, the townsfolk are kind to me. Plus it feels nice to help this crazy town, I can't count the amount of time I've been called to babysit kids because both parents were out all day working. I'm basically the town's daycare," Dorothea giggled.

"I still don't understand how you can handle those idiot kids," Helmut spat.

"Don't be so harsh on them, I may not be the biggest fan of kids, but I still tolerate them. They just need some help becoming a functioning member of society instead of being a bunch of demons."

Helmut leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, "This girl does everything, except help me out in the kitchen."

Dorothea crossed her arms defensively, "I already told you, I can't help you. You're the-"

"Second best cook that you've ever met. Yeah, yeah, I know. Still could help me, maybe you'd learn a thing or two."

Franky looked over towards Dorothea, "Wait, second best? Who's the first?"

Dorothea rested her check on her right hand like a little schoolgirl. "Sanji-sa, of course," she said dreamily, not noticing how red the cook's face got.

"Shitty girl won't stop talking about how fantastic your cooking was," Helmut complained, "I swear I can't make one meal for the girl without being compared to you."

Luffy grinned as he briefly paused his eating, "Shishishi! Sanji is a pretty amazing cook isn't he!"

"It would make sense that the future pirate king has the best chef in the world on his crew," Dorothea commented playfully.

Once everyone had finished dinner, Dorothea offered to help them set up tents outside of Helmut's house since it takes about a two days trip to get back to the dock from the city. She even managed to convince a few townsfolk to let her borrow their blankets and pillows so Straw Hats could sleep comfortably.

The next day the crew went back into town, hoping to gather some supplies and then head back to their ship. Dorothea was even considering joining them, she saw the crew Luffy managed to find and she saw the level of devotion each of them had towards their own goals. After talking to Robin and Franky, Dorothea could tell that Luffy had grown tenfold since she last met him. Plus he did have an adorable reindeer on his crew.

Dorothea was with Nami and Robin window shopping when the mayor came running up to Dorothea once again.

"Dorothea! I need your help once again! Something terrible has happened and everyone is freaking out," Juergen said trying to catch his breath, his hand resting upon his chest.

Dorothea crouched down so she would be eye level with the mayor, "What is it, Ojii-san?"

He looked at her with eyes full of fear, "Oh, it's just terrible, Dorothea. Someone kidnapped Lorraine and Gislin's kids! Little Heinrich and Ferdinand are gone!"


	4. Tying Up Loose Ends

_Dorothea crouched down so she would be eye level with the mayor, "What is it, Ojii-san?"_

_ He looked at her with eyes full of fear, "Oh, it's just terrible, Dorothea. Someone kidnapped Lorraine and Gislin's kids! Little Heinrich and Ferdinand are gone!" _

"What!?" Dorothea snapped, "Who was watching them? Who in this town would even want to take Heinrich and Ferdinand?"

The mayor looked down as he fidgeted with his hands, "Listen, Dorothea, people are thinking that it might have actually been a murder. We found blood at the crime scene, but Lorraine insists someone took them."

Dorothea tapped her foot against the ground and crossed her arms, "What is it, Ojii-san? Get to the point."

"Well, you see, some people have the idea that it was Helmut who took them," The mayor choked out.

Dorothea stomped over to the crowd that was gathered towards the edge of the town square. All of the whisperings about the crime that had just been committed, hushed voices crowded Dorothea. She could feel everyone's eyes on her as she drew closer.

"Pathetic," Dorothea's eyes narrowed, "All of you pathetic. Blaming an old man for a heinous crime without any evidence." She glared down at the townsfolk who had stopped gossiping to look up at the foreign girl.

One bold woman, who looked to be in her mid-forties, just about the age of Lorraine, looked Dorothea in the eye, "Why shouldn't we blame that shitty old man! He basically lives up in that cabin of his, he could be torturing those kids right now!"

Dorothea grabbed the woman by the collar of her dress, glaring intensely at her "Listen here, only I get to call him 'shitty old man', ya hear? And there is no way he took those kids 'cause he was too busy working, I should know, I basically had to beg him to take a break today. So keep your whore mouth shut."

The woman spat in Dorothea's face, "You're just trying to protect your sugar daddy, you fucking-"

That's when a familiar curly browed cook pulled the two women apart, "Ladies, please stop fighting. It pains me to see two beauties fight like this." Both women glared at the chef for interrupting, but the rest of the crowd breathed a sigh of relief.

Dorothea grabbed a cigarette from the pack she kept in her short's pocket, putting it in her mouth and quickly lighting it, "This isn't your battle, Sanji-sa. Gather up the rest of the Straw Hats, we are going to look for the kids, okay?"

The cook smiled as he twirled towards his crew, who were still talking with the mayor, "Anything for you, Dorothea-chan!"

She sighed as she turned away from the cook and back towards the crowd, "I need everyone to search for these kids and someone guide me towards Lorraine and Gilsin, I need to make sure they're okay."

Spinning back to his crew, Sanji came to a stop right next to Nami, who asked him, "Sanji, what the hell just happened over there?" Sanji noticed how the rest of the crew was still intently watching Dorothea in the distance as she took charge of the situation and made sure everyone got on with their daily lives.

The mayor answered for the blond cook, "Dorothea has a bit of a temper, but it surely does scare the people straight. I can always count on her to control the townsfolk when I can't, sure it may be a scare tactic, but it's so damn effective." The mayor was nonchalant, cluing in the Straw Hats that this was not an uncommon occurrence.

"What will you do when Dorothea leaves the island? You can't keep using her as your scapegoat any time something goes wrong," Nami questioned, resting her hand on her hip.

The mayor looked towards the ground, rubbing the back of his neck, "I've been avoiding that thought ever since she first stepped up and helped me out. I guess the town will go back to its chaotic self."

Luffy stared blankly at the mayor, "Why is everyone so scared of Doro?"

"Well, young man," the mayor started, "Dorothea has this aura of confidence and power to her. And it doesn't help that she's a Donquixote, which only scares the people more. I was surprised to see one of them stand up to her."

This only confused Luffy more, "What does her family name have to do anything with this?"

Robin raised her hand, "The Donquixote family are celestial dragons, but it seems like someone in Dorothea's family gave up their title. But I am assuming the townspeople know this and fear the potential power she has. Is this right, Ojii-san?"

"Right on the nose, ma'am! Luckily most people don't realize she's a big softie underneath that hard exterior," The mayor noticed that the worried crowd was no more and Dorothea was on her way to Gislin and Lorraine's house, "Alright, I'm going to need you guys to start questioning some citizens. You guys may be outsiders, but that just means you aren't biased towards any of these people. Maybe group up and try to get as much information as you can."

Luffy giggled and put his hand on his hat, "We're like real life detectives!"

"Idiot! Remember the reason why we are questioning these people! There are kids missing, Luffy!" Nami scolded as she whacked the back of her captain's head.

The crew was split into groups of two: Luffy and Nami paired, Zoro went with Chopper, Sanji with Usopp, and Franky teamed up with Robin. Each group went house to house trying to gather any useful information they could about the kidnapping.

One man Nami and Luffy interviewed told them, "You're outsiders, you wouldn't understand. I can't just tell you what I remember."

Nami grew furious, "What do you mean you won't tell us! You could help us find those kids! They are suffering right now because we can't find the person who did this."

"Yeah if they're not already dead," The man replied, leaning back into his chair, "I wouldn't be surprised if that Donquixote girl was the one responsible for this… I mean the girl can't even smile without looking like she's the devil."

"I thought Doro's smile was nice," Luffy pouted, "I'm sure Doro didn't do this, she was with us when the kids were taken. Plus, she seems to really care for those kids!"

The man scoffed, "Sure, she may be innocent, but what about Helmut? He could have used her to take the kids; she may put up with our kids, but Helmut specifically hated Gislin's boys."

Nami narrowed her eyes at the man, "Helmut was also with us all day. Why don't you just tell us what you know?"

"I don't know what you mean," The man stiffened and his eyes darted between Nami and Luffy, "If I tell you two, do you promise to leave me alone and never come back?"

Without hesitation, Luffy responded, "Sure!"

Rubbing his temples the man confessed, "The only person who was with the kids, Heinrich and Ferdinand, was their mother, Lorraine. I wish I was lying, but I've talked to a couple of other residents, none of them saw the kids near anyone else."

"But it would make sense that none of you noticed the kidnapper. I'm sure the kidnapper made sure they weren't seen," Nami commented.

"I told you guys that you wouldn't understand! I know it sounds terrible, but my buddies and I agree that Lorraine was the only one who was with the kids, and she never takes her eyes off them."

Nami started to get curious, "What are you getting at?"

"Yeah, what are you saying?" Luffy added on, crossing his arms, still pouting like a child.

"God, how do I say this," the man leaned forward and glanced at the floor, "Lorraine and Gislin are going through some financial difficulties… Like most folks are right now. But Lorraine seemed paranoid about the family going broke even though Gislin worked overtime in the mines just so she could feel a bit better. I think… I think the bitch might have finally snapped."

Nami gasped, "You don't think she killed her own children! She told us it was a kidnapping!"

"See I knew this would happen. Fine, go on with your little investigation, but keep this in the back of your mind."

The rest of the afternoon was spent investigating the Heinrich and Ferdinand case. When the Straw Hats met back up with the mayor and Dorothea, they told them both what they had discovered. They all sat around a table at an empty bar. Every group had received the same information: Lorraine was with the kids the whole day and nobody saw anyone else with them.

Nami bit her lip as she informed the rest of them about what the man had told her and Luffy, "Luffy and I met one guy who believed that it was… Um, that it was Lorraine who." She stopped for a second and swallowed her spit, "Lorraine who killed her kids."

Franky's eyes widened, "Whoa, killed! I thought this was just a kidnapping!"

Dorothea bit down on her cigarette, "These people wouldn't say something like that unless they were somewhat confident in their theory. I say we should all pay close attention to Lorraine and Gislin." She changed her gaze towards the mayor, "Ojii-san, organize a town meeting as soon as you can and have Lorraine and Gislin make a public statement about Heinrich and Ferdinand."

The mayor nodded his head and quickly left the bar, leaving Dorothea alone with the rest of the Straw Hats. Robin was the first to speak.

"It sure looks like you run the show here, Dorothea-chan," she spoke, smiling at the younger girl.

Dorothea leaned back into her chair, resting her feet on top of the table, "Well nothing would get done if I didn't initiate anything. I just hope this town can adjust after I leave."

Sanji's eyes lit up, "So you are joining the crew, Dorothea-chan!"

"Hold on there, Sanji-sa, I never said I'd join your crew, but..." Dorothea started, she crossed her arms, "Your captain surprised me. Declaring war on the World Government? That's pretty ballsy. Robin and Franky told me everything that went down at Enies Lobby. And I gotta say, you're crew has really outdone themselves, Luffy-sa."

Luffy smiled at her, "Does that mean you'll join my crew!?"

Dorothea smirked, "I'd be honored to, Captain-sa."

Getting out of his seat Sanji clung to the new Straw Hat, "Dorothea-chan, I'm so glad you're joining us! I was so worried for you when we were apart!"

The blonde girl laughed at the chef's antics, "I'm glad you're happy, but I would be a million times happier if you released me."

Sanji reluctantly let go of the girl and went back to his seat and that's when Luffy remembered something, "Yo, Doro, why does everyone here think you're so mean? You're nice around us, but the people we questioned kept saying you were the devil."

Usopp added on, "I mean she did almost get into a fight with that one lady."

"Yeah, what was that about?" Zoro nodded.

Before Dorothea could answer, Sanji pleaded her case, "That lady blamed Helmut for taking the kids! She was just protecting her friend!"

"Let the damn woman answer for herself, you shitty cook!" Zoro snapped.

"Sorry to disappoint, Roronoa-sa, but he's correct. I let my emotions get the best of me; I couldn't sit and watch someone tarnish Helmut's name," Dorothea responded, "But in general the people here don't seem to like foreigners very much, even Helmut hated me at first." Dorothea placed her index finger on her cheek, "Actually, the people here love foreigners at first because they can try and trick them. For the first couple of days I was here, they kept trying to get me to buy all these fake special gems they dug up in the mines."

Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy's jaws dropped. "Fake!" They screamed. Nami and Zoro looked like they were about to scold their crewmates while the rest of the table just laughed at the three's gullible nature.

The next morning the whole town gathered to listen to Lorraine and Gislin's public statement about their kids. Dorothea was placed off to the side where she could view the two parents without any obstructions; while Franky, Robin, and Usopp were scattered around the crowd, instructed to focus on both parents' facial expressions and their word choices. They were to watch out for anything that struck them as suspicious. The other Straw Hats were out looking for evidence that might lead them towards Heinrich and Ferdinand.

Lorraine and Gislin walked on stage which was a slightly elevated wooden circle so the crowd could gather in every direction. Lorraine was a petite woman with long auburn hair that was pulled back into a tight bun. She wore a somewhat expensive dress, more expensive than the average dress found in shops on Akahajito; it was a dark shade of gray with thin white vertical lines. Gislin, her husband, stood right next to her, keeping her close to him. He was younger than her by a few years as he still had a youthful glow to him despite working in the mines day in and day out. He was in his usual work attire, a white long sleeved shirt that was now black due to the mines and dark brown overalls which also were covered in dust.

Lorraine was the first to speak, "Thank you all for coming here and showing support for us right now in these hard times. I just can not believe that someone would do something like this." She held her husband tighter, as she rubbed her eyes and inhaled a shaky breath. "We just want our kids back. They should be with their mother and father. Please, God, we just want our angels back." Her voice was soft and gentle.

Gislin spoke up as well, "We just… We, uh, just want to see our children, Heinrich and Ferdinand, again. Please help us to find them." He almost couldn't finish his sentence due to him choking back his tears.

And that was it. The crowd dispersed and Lorraine and Gislin went back to their house. Franky, Robin, Usopp, and Dorothea met back up to discuss the public statement the parents just gave. Robin and Franky both had their brows furrowed, indicating to Dorothea that they noticed something during the speech.

"Robin-sa, Franky-sa, you both look concerned, what happened?" Dorothea asked, wondering if they had come to the same conclusion as she did.

Robin answered, "Yes, the mother… Lorraine, she seemed very formal. Throughout her talk, she never used any contractions and it looked like she had planned what she was going to say for a long time. The husband, on the other hand, had no idea what to say, he was too overcome with emotion."

"Excellent, Robin-sa. Now Franky-sa, what did you notice?"

"The mother was super put together, I recall that she never actually cried, but instead she just rubbed her eyes. To add onto that, she never held any emotion in her face except for once she almost looked like she was laughing…"

Dorothea's eyes widened, "When did it look like that?"

"Uh, right after she said 'they should be with their mother and father.' Why is that super important, Doro-san?" Franky raised his eyebrow, curious as to where the girl was going with this.

"I'll explain in a minute. Usopp did you notice anything odd?" The group turned their direction over to the long-nosed Straw Hat.

Noticing all eyes were on him, he froze for a second, "What!? No, I didn't even notice anything Franky or Robin pointed out! I don't know why you asked me to be here." Usopp rubbed the back of his neck.

Dorothea chuckled, "I counted on you not noticing that kind of stuff. I just have one question for you Usopp, did you feel Lorraine's sadness?"

Usopp's eyes widened, "I was wondering why the father's part of the speech got me so emotional, but not the mother's. But yeah, I didn't feel anything when Lorraine was speaking."

Dorothea took her cigarette out of her mouth, blowing smoke into the air above her, "Looks like we've got a murder on our hands."

The two groups met back up later that day at the bar once again. The Straw Hats who had been with Luffy and the mayor felt defeated as their search for the boys was unsuccessful. Dorothea's group, on the other hand, felt uneasy, everyone at the table knew there was speculation of the children being murdered by their mother, but after watching Lorraine speak about her children keyed Dorothea in that it was more than just speculation.

Dorothea had explained how Lorraine's body language helped her identify that she was lying. Everything from the way she held herself to the way she spoke screamed liar. Lorraine was not known to be formal or well put together, both the mayor and Dorothea agreed that Lorraine was a more emotional person.

Zoro nodded inquisitively as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, "So Lorraine is our main suspect right now, but what about the husband? Was he lying as well?" The Straw Hats all looked towards Dorothea for an answer.

"No, Gislin was telling the truth and he has a solid alibi. I think the townsfolk are right this time, Lorraine snapped and the end result wasn't pretty." Dorothea leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes. "I never thought I would be acting as law enforcement for a tiny little village. Kinda ironic, isn't it? A group of pirates acting as the town's police."

"It does seem to come naturally to you, Dorothea-san," Robin replied, "Do you think if you were brought up differently you would've become a marine?" An innocent question, but a question Dorothea asked herself frequently as of recent.

Opening her eyes slightly, Dorothea replied, "I have a feeling that I would've just wanted a normal life. No connections to marines, pirates, celestial dragons. Nothing. Though there's a part of me that always wanted to become a marine just to rebel, ya know? But that didn't work out too well for someone I used to know." Her voice became less confident and softer towards the end, her mind trailing off once again.

Robin gave the blonde girl a slight smile, "A normal life… I guess that's what you were trying to build here before we came."

"That's what I told myself, but I think I'm more like my younger sister than I realize. I mainly stayed here because I was needed so badly."

Luffy perked up, "That's right Ace mentioned you had a brother! You seem like the older sister type!"

Dorothea chuckled lightly, "That's right Straw Hat-sa, I have a family." Dorothea paused for a moment, her smile was replaced with a frown, "I miss them lots. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how much they must miss me… Well except one of my brothers, I'm sure he's doing just fine without me."

Luffy gave the Donquixote girl a smile that seemed to light up the whole room, "Well if I ran into Ace, I'm sure that you will run into your family sooner or later!

"I hope so, Straw Hat-sa… But until then I guess I'll have to settle for you lot." The rest of the night was spent celebrating the Straw Hats new member and Dorothea trying to get the town under control. Every once in a while Dorothea would have to step outside the bar so the mayor could give her updates on the case. By 3am the next morning, the case had been completely solved. The mayor and some townsfolk, who often acted as police before Dorothea arrived, had found the two kids, dead and buried in Lorraine's garden. It was a lucky discovery too as the two boys were only found them after another kid accidentally kicked his ball into Lorraine's garden and came across a slightly uncovered arm. He immediately told his parents who told the mayor and just like that the dots started to connect even further. Upon close examination of the bodies of the boys, the medical professional was able to identify what kind of knife would have been used to stab the children, and it turns out it was the same kind of knife Lorraine had bought the night before the murders.

Gislin was distraught after discovering his wife was the one to kill their children. Dorothea and Helmut brought him a weeks' worth of food and Helmut offered to help Gislin whenever he could. As Dorothea was planning to leave with the rest of the Straw Hats, she could not do as much for Gislin as she would have liked.

Helmut and Dorothea said their goodbyes. She thanked him for all he's done for her and how if he ever needed anything, and she meant anything, to call her. Helmut denied it, but he was sad to see the young girl go; he didn't have any family left on Akahajito and Dorothea was beginning to fill that void in his heart.

The time had come and the Straw Hats, including Dorothea, all made their way to the Thousand Sunny. Robin and Nami showed Dorothea around the ship and where she would be sleeping. Dorothea cringed at the idea of sleeping in a hammock due to the fact that she often got tangled up in them or straight up would fall out of them. Dorothea was impressed with all the thought that went into the ship as it seemed as if there was a specific area for each crewmember.

That night the crew celebrated Dorothea joining the crew once more, with Sanji making shrimp tortellini for dinner. Dorothea was torn between devouring the meal like Luffy and savoring every bite, causing her to stare angrily at her meal, worrying Sanji.

"Is something wrong, Dorothea-chan? Do you not like it?" He asked, panicking immensely.

"No," She replied, not taking her eyes off the meal, "I just don't know whether to savor it or to give in to my primal intentions and eat it as if I haven't had food since the last time I saw you."

Sanji chuckled, "I can always make you some more, Dorothea-chan. So no need to worry about how you eat it, just so long as you enjoy it."

Dorothea nodded and bite into the dish, like usual she held no emotion on her face. There was no indication as to whether she enjoyed the dish or not. Soon enough, Dorothea finished her plate. "Sanji-sa," She said.

Sanji hummed in response, letting her know he was listening to her.

"You better start looking for a wedding venue. Any more food like this and I think I am legally required to marry you."

Most of the crew laughed at Dorothea's comment save for Usopp and Nami, who yelled at her not to say things like that to Sanji. Dorothea looked at where Sanji was standing just moments prior, he seemed to melt at Dorothea's words and was now lying on the ground. The only response Dorothea could hear was the cook muttering her name over and over again. Dorothea felt like she found the perfect family.


	5. Just Dead Bones

Dorothea warmed up to the Straw Hats quickly; she took in all of their unique quirks in stride. She made note of the little things like Zoro's odd sleeping pattern. She swore he never actually slept, only napped. Right now, she was watching Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper play around on a swing. They had a little competition of who could jump the farthest from the swing. Dorothea never joined in on their antiques, but whenever it wasn't Chopper's turn, she would hold him in her arms, often remarking on how fluffy he was.

She continued to watch the three boys from the sidelines, smiling at how carefree they all were. That was until Sanji asked them to grab him an octopus from the aquarium so he could make lunch. Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper rushed to the aquarium, all of them talking about their favorite octopi dishes, leaving Dorothea alone.

Sanji turned his attention towards you, "Oh, Dorothea-chan! I made you a tasty drink to cool you down on this hot day! I can bring it down to you right now."

"No need, Sanji-sa. I'll really start to tan if I stay out here any longer. I'll join you in the kitchen for a while," Dorothea gave a small smile towards the cook. She made her way to the kitchen and sat down at the small bar where Sanji had handed her the drink he made. As usual, it was amazing, and Dorothea couldn't help but rave about it.

Sanji was cleaning up a few plates and glasses while waiting for Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper to bring him the octopus he requested. While he waited, he made some small talk with Dorothea. "How are you liking the new crew so far, Dorothea-chan?"

She rested her head in her hands, carefully watching the cook, "Everyone here is so unique and kind-hearted. It makes me wonder why Luffy allowed me to join, Shufufufu!"

"Don't say things like that Dorothea-chan. Just look at what you did not even a few days ago, you helped that village capture a murder. Not to mention you were acting as their police for however long you were there. Don't try to tell me you're not kind-hearted when I saw it firsthand," Sanji lectured as he paused what he was doing to show Dorothea the disappointment on his face. Dorothea sighed and glanced away from the cook, not wanting their eyes to meet. She clearly did not want Sanji to continue the topic, so he asked, "Have you gotten any more calls from your family?"

Dorothea's pout changed into a slight smile, "Actually, yeah. My sister snuck away from my father to call me. Of course, the entire time we talked she was so scared of being caught, but I was proud of her." She took a swig of the drink Sanji made her; it was surprisingly not as sweet as it looked. The bright blue of the drink made her think it would taste almost like liquid cotton candy. "You got any siblings, Sanji-sa?" Dorothea asked casually.

Although Sanji was good at hiding it, Dorothea noticed him tense up at her question. "No. The only family I have these days is the crew and my old man Zeff." Sanji relaxed once he started to reminisce about his old life on the Baratie.

Dorothea's eyes widened, "You mean 'Red Leg' Zeff? That Zeff! Of course, you mean that Zeff, for hell's sake your wanted poster says, 'Black Leg' Sanji."

"Ah, so you've heard of him," Sanji commented with a smile, resuming his cleaning.

"Heard of him? He was my first person of interest when I worked for my father. He thought it was the safest option since Zeff wasn't a pirate at the time."

"If Zeff wasn't a pirate when you were tasked with gaining information on him, why bother?" Sanji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It was more of a practice round. To see how well I can sift through useless information to find the important pieces. I guess I did a good enough job for my father because the next week I was tasked with another pirate… One who was not retired, but who was very private," Dorothea explained.

Before Sanji could ask her any more questions, the two heard yelling coming from the front of the ship. Luffy had managed to find a barrel that had a label stating it was treasure and the crew stood in a circle around the mysterious barrel wondering what to do with it. Dorothea didn't think much of the barrel, it wasn't particularly abnormal; it was just a barrel. Luffy, on the other hand, insisted that it must contain treasure, much to Chopper and Usopp's joy.

"No way," Nami said, "It's probably just some sake and food." Dorothea could hear Zoro make a quiet comment about how it was his oh so "long-awaited" sake.

Luffy became defensive, "How can you tell?!" Nami then explained to Luffy how the barrel was most likely an offering to the Sea God in exchange for safe travels.

Nami looked at the rest of the crew with devilish eyes, "It's safe to drink it if we pray first, right?"

"What?! No way, then we'll be cursed!" Usopp gulped.

Zoro, on the other hand, had an entirely different reaction, "Hmpf, I don't pray to any god."

Dorothea nodded at Zoro's comment "Like hell any God's gonna receive my thanks. Let's just drink this sake and move on with our day," she huffed.

"Well then!" Franky clapped his hands together, excitedly. "We should taste it!"

Robin remained on the sidelines watching Usopp struggle to open the barrel. "It's tradition to put another offering in the empty cask once you've taken something out." Sadly, most of the crew was too preoccupied with getting the cask open to listen to Robin.

Once Luffy got the cask opened, a bright, red beam popped out from the cask and went flying into the sky and as quickly as it appeared, it exploded, leaving the crew in shock. Dorothea turned her attention away from the now empty cask to Robin, who did not look confused by the light, but rather worried.

"Robin-sa, was that what I think that was?" Dorothea asked, already knowing the answer.

Robin nodded, not taking her eyes off the cask, "If you're thinking it was a flare, then yes. I hope it's just a prank, but…"

"Others could use this flare to target us," Dorothea finished. She had heard of crews falling victim to this kind of trap; it was an easy way to weed out weak crews. Seeing it happen to her own crew first-hand was a much different experience than reading about it in the newspaper.

Everything seemed to happen all at once: the crew scrambling to see if they could see any other ships, a massive storm coming out of nowhere causing everyone to temporarily forget about the flare, Franky revealing that the ship has automatic paddles, and then finally, everything coming to a lull in the darkest fog the crew had ever seen.

"It's good that we made it through that storm, but what is with this sea?" Usopp questioned. The ocean was still crashing against the ship as if they were still in the storm.

"Hm, I believe that would be due to the fact we are in the Florian Triangle. I was told this place was creepy, but not even being to see sunlight. That's a bit much," Dorothea replied. Her mind started to drift to her previous residence, Dressrosa. As much as she hated how she was treated on Dressrosa, she had to admit, the weather was always perfect. After living in the North Blue for most of her life, she wasn't a fan of cold weather.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by an enthusiastic "Yohoho~" that emanated from a giant pirate ship. Dorothea could barely make out a figure standing on the deck of the strange ship. It seemed odd to her that there was only one crew member on the deck, _'Maybe this is a trick? Maybe the rest of the crew is waiting for us to drop our guards before they attack…. Not only that but is that guy a skeleton?'_

"Going to deliver… Bink's sake~" theskeletal figure continued singing.

"Yep, that's definitely a skeleton," Dorothea murmured to herself, but it seemed Chopper heard her as he immediately clung to her leg in terror. Now, she would never admit that she admired all things cute, no that would be too cliché. A stone-cold pirate being a total softie around anything fluffy? That's been done a hundred times before. Dorothea attempted not to give Chopper a reassuring pat on the top of his adorable hat, but she was weak, and the rest of the crew was distracted by a singing skeleton on a ghost ship.

"There's no such thing as singing skeletons!" Usopp declared as he clutched his head, refusing to look in the direction of the ghost ship, "That was a spirit!" Chopper nodded in agreement, still holding onto Dorothea's leg.

Luffy, on the other hand, was ready to make a new friend, "Let's go immediately! That was a living skeleton after all!" Before Luffy could rush over to the ghost ship, he was stopped by both Sanji and Dorothea.

Dorothea tried to calm her captain down, "Hold on a second, Luffy. We can't have you going to investigate on your own." Sanji nodded along before directing everyone's attention towards Zoro, who held multiple sticks in his hand.

"We'll draw lots to figure out who's going with Luffy" He explained, much to the dismay of Nami, Chopper, and Usopp.

Nami was the first to speak up, "Let the ones who want to go with him go!"

"Yeah!" Chopper and Usopp rallied.

Zoro looked towards his captain and four other crewmates, who were all standing atop the ship's rail, "Is that really okay?"

Nami, Usopp, and Chopper immediately understood the chaos of sending those five to the ghost ship alone would cause and gave in to Zoro's suggestion of drawing lots.

In the end, it was decided Nami and Sanji would accompany Luffy. Although Usopp and chopper were elated that they weren't picked, it still didn't help with the fact that there was a ghost ship right in front of them. Dorothea decided that carrying around Chopper would help time move faster.

She puffed out her cheeks like a kid, "I wonder what Sanji-sa and Nami-sa are doing right now." She could feel Chopper shiver.

Robin chuckled at the young girl and Chopper, "I'm sure Nami wishes she were in your shoes right now."

A piercing scream rang out through the air. "Man, I'm jealous," Dorothea sighed as Chopper leaped out of her arms and began running towards Usopp, both screaming.

Dorothea could only stare as the overly friendly skeleton introduced himself. Her face was a mix of bewilderment and awe. She detailed every little aspect of the skeleton as if she were trying to put together a puzzle. Luffy had just announced that the living skeleton was their new nakama. At first, she thought that this was all a horrible mistake, but after taking a quick glance around at the crew, she decided that a living, breathing skeleton was not the weirdest addition.

"Hello everyone! How do you do? It seems like my ship and I have caused some trouble. I'm 'Dead Bones' Brook! Nice to meet you!" The skeleton introduced himself, ignoring the shocked faces of the rest of the crew, excluding Robin who was reacting as if this were an everyday situation.

Without removing her gaze from Brook, Dorothea leaned in towards Robin and whispered, "Is Luffy really adding a random skeleton to our crew?" She hadn't known Luffy for a long time, but she hoped that he would have learned some impulse control in the time she was away.

Robin just smiled, "It seems so."

Brook turned his attention to the two girls, making his way over to them with only one question: "Hello young ladies! May I see your panties?"

Robin had no reaction to the skeleton's question, but just for a second Dorothea's eyes went wide and if her ears were visible, the whole crew would have seen them turn a bright red. The young Donquixote placed her hands over her ears, more so over the hair that covered her ears, and shook her head, making eye contact with anything but Brook. Luckily in her desperate attempt to look at something besides Brook, she caught a glimpse of Sanji, who was very upset at the skeleton's question. Seeing him get so worked up over Brook made Dorothea want to laugh instead of hideaway.

Luckily for the two girls, Nami answered Brook for them, by throwing one of her shoes at him, "Stop that, you perverted skeleton!"

"Hey, Luffy! What the hell is this guy!?" Zoro yelled at his captain, pointing at Brook frantically.

Luffy had a simple answer for his simple question, "He's funny so I made him our nakama."

"I won't accept that!" Zoro turned his attention to the two who accompanied Luffy, "You were supposed to stop him from doing stuff like this!"

Without missing a beat, both Nami and Sanji replied, "We're ashamed."

Dinner was interesting, to say the least. She bet her father never had dinner with a living skeleton who keeps cracking skull jokes. Her father had done many things, but just this once Dorothea thought she had him beat. During dinner, she found it hard not to stare at the skeleton in front of her, so she tried to focus on her meal and not the very tall skeleton with an afro. Perhaps Dorothea was slightly afraid of the skeleton in the kitchen, after all, she had no idea what it was capable of.

She did manage to look up when Brook was telling the crew about his devil fruit. "The yomi-yomi no mi?" Dorothea asked, making sure she had heard the name correctly as she was going to write this down in one of her notebooks later. Normally she never liked to write information about friends as her notes could fall into the wrong hands, but she had always had a fascination with different devil fruit. Perhaps that came with the territory of being a pirate on the grandline. Ever since her father decided to train her as an informant, she had kept precise notes on different devil fruit.

"That's right!" Brook responded, "The truth is, I already died some decades ago! In short, the yomi-yomi no mi has the power of revival. I was promised I would live again as a 'revived human'. Oh, how wonderful that ability seemed!" He relaxed before continuing his story, "I was a pirate in those old days. On the ship, you all saw earlier, I came to this sea with my nakama. Unluckily for us, we ran into some powerful foes. Our whole crew was killed."

Dorothea brought her attention back to her, now empty, plate. An entire pirate's life is one big risk, but to lose your whole crew. The phrase "The captain goes down with the ship" came to mind, and although Brook wasn't the captain, she was sure he held the same loyalty to his old crew, but his option to go down with the ship was stripped away from him._ 'Just how long had Brook been living on his former crew's ship?' _

"Once I died, my soul was returned from the underworld! If I had gone straight to my body, I would have been resurrected, but, as you can see, there is a thick fog here and I got lost. My soul wandered around this fog for a year. When I found my body it was only white bones. I couldn't believe my eyes… Although I don't have eyes!" Brook heartily laughed at the end of his story.

Luffy smiled, "You got lost! Just like Zoro!"

To which Zoro could only respond with a sharp "Hey!"

Franky sat with his arms crossed, still not fully trusting the new undead crew member, "So that's how you became a talking skeleton. Being resurrected even though you were only bones is the power of your devil fruit."

"But you're still cursed?" Sanji asked, "Since you've been revived, the only ability you have is the inability to swim."

"What about your hair? As your body rots away, you lose your hair, but you're a skeleton with an afro?" Zoro added, more concerned with the biological logic behind Brook's skeleton form.

Brook smiled, or at least Dorothea thought that the skeleton was smiling, maybe that was just how his bones looked, "The roots of my hair are very strong." He tugged at his hair to demonstrate.

Usopp stood up and held up his golden cross, putting it in between him and Brook, "So are you a ghost after all, or not? Even if you were human, you don't look like one at all!"

Brook began to panic, but not for the reason Dorothea thought. "But I strongly dislike ghosts! If I happen to see one, I'll scream!"

Then the day went from weird to outright creepy. Nami pulled out a mirror and said to Brook, "Have you seen yourself?"

Upon seeing the mirror, Brook screamed out, "GYAA! Take that mirror away!"

Usopp and Chopper, who were both next to Brook, looked at the mirror. Dorothea could see the blood drain from their faces as Usopp said, "You're not reflected in the mirror!"

Now, Dorothea was not one to get scared easily. No, that was never an option, but she felt her blood run cold when she couldn't find Brook in the reflection of the mirror. She wished she could have been like the ever calm Robin and sit patiently in her seat, but she instead recoiled so hard that she knocked her chair over, leaving her on the ground. "Okay, I was fine with a lively skeleton, but I draw the line at not having a reflection! Even normal skeletons have a reflection!"

"How can you be fine with a talking skeleton, but not having a reflection is too much?" Zoro scolded.

"Are you backseat driving my fears!" Dorothea playfully replied. She dusted off her shirt and shorts, sat her chair upright, and pretended as if nothing had ever happened.

Usopp backed up, still holding his golden cross in front of him, "He's a vampire?" His eyes carefully scanned over Brook, "And look carefully he doesn't have a shadow!"

Brook stared into his cup of tea, "I'll tell you everything. It's been a long time since I began drifting on this sea. Being a skeleton and not having a shadow are two completely different things. Some years ago a man snatched away my shadow." This made Dorothea feel a bit better, at the very least he was just a normal undead skeleton and not an old eldritch horror come to tear apart her crew limb from limb.

"You're still a talking skeleton. It doesn't matter what you say. It won't surprise us anymore, right?" Zoro said.

"But it could. A shadow being stolen means that I cannot exist in a world with light. If my body is exposed to direct sunlight, it will start to disappear. I saw someone I met disappear under the sun in front of my own eyes! It was a horrible sight for me, even though I am a skeleton. I also cannot be seen in a mirror or photograph! In short, mine is an existence rejected by light." Brook then proceeded to stand up, "And here I am unable to exist in sunlight, with all my crewmates long dead!"

Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette, "Your life's been pretty miserable."

"But I lived through it all! Even though I am just bones. I'm 'just dead bones' Brook! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Brook threw his arms up in joy.

"Why're you so happy?" Sanji prodded.

"Yohohohohoho!" Brook laughed maniacally, leaving several crew members unnerved.

Dorothea knitted her brows, "Are you okay, Brook-sa?"

"Today is such a marvelous day! I was finally able to find somebody!" Brook cheered, "I couldn't tell the difference today and tomorrow on this dark sea with a thick fog. All alone on a ship that won't obey its rudder. How many years I've been wandering! I've been really lonely! Lonely and afraid! So much that I wanted to die! But I lived on..."

Dorothea could feel the intense mix of pure joy at finally finding new friends and immense sadness from years of solitude emanating from Brook. For some it seemed like they could empathize with Brook, surely some of the crew had felt isolated from the world at one point. Dorothea could never remember a time where she wasn't around others, but that didn't mean she never felt lonely. As the captain's daughter, other crew members avoided her in fear of getting on her father's bad side, and on top of that, her father never paid much attention to her unless it was absolutely necessary like when he would inform her of her new training schedule.

Brook continued, "I've lived a long time! People are such a delight! For me, you're my delight! Yohoho! I would cry tears of joy if I had eyes!" Brook then turned to Luffy, "You invited me to be your nakama! I'm really glad, thank you very much! But the truth is I should decline!"

Luffy's carefree mood quickly changed, "What!? Why?"

"As I told you before, my shadow has been stolen. My body cannot live under the sun. Right now. I am protected by the thick fog. Even if I could leave this sea with you, it would just be a matter of time before my body disappeared. I must get back my shadow, which is still here. I have to wait for a miracle day! Yohohoho!"

"What are you going on about!? If you need your shadow, I'll get it back for you. You said someone stole it, right? Who was it?" Luffy said sternly as he made his way to Brook.

"You are a truly kind person. I'm surprised. However, I won't tell you. I can't tell you, who I've only just met, to go and die for me."

"Is the enemy really that strong?" Franky questioned, "It won't hurt if you just tell us his name."

"No, I cannot. You may find him if I do! I don't know if I will find him before my second life is over. If I do find him, I've decided to fight him."

Dorothea gave the skeleton playful smirk, "Then we can help to make sure you find him and get a fair fight, Brook-sa. All you gotta do is tell us his name."

"Enough of all of this, let's sing a song!" Brook pulled out a violin, "Music is my pride! I was the musician on my crew!"

"Really!" Luffy was excited at the mention of Brook's former position, "You're a musician!? Then you've really got to join our crew!"

"Yohoho! Let's sing a fun song together!" He got his violin in place and just as he was about to begin, he screamed and fell to the floor in shock.

Dorothea got out of her seat and knelt by the trembling skeleton, "What's wrong, Brook-sa?"

He pointed in front of him, "Gh-Gh- Ghost!"

Dorothea swiveled her head to look at the area Brook was pointing to and sure enough, a cute, translucent entity was coming through the wall. She narrowed her eyes at the ghost, unsure of its intentions. Ever since she was young, everyone around her told her ghosts didn't exist and until now she believed them. But here she was, kneeling next to a talking skeleton and looking at a ghost. Suddenly, the whole ship seemed to shake, causing plates to fall and shatter on the ground. Dorothea did her best to catch some of the plates to prevent them from breaking.

Brook ran out of the kitchen, "What a thing to happen! Those guys are watching this ship?" He called to the rest of the Straw Hats, "Please come look! This ship is being blocked! This is what caused the shaking!" Luffy went after Brook, while the rest of the crew remained in the kitchen content to watch everything unfold from there. "This is the back of the gate"

"Gate?" Luffy asked.

Brook was too lost in thought to respond to Luffy, "Which means…" He ran back into the kitchen, "Look at the back of the ship!" This time the entire crew followed him.

"What's going on Brook-sa?" Dorothea asked as she was met face to face with a gothic-looking island.

"Did you, perhaps, pick up a floating barrel?"

Dorothea's eyes widened, "Yeah, we did, just earlier today…"

"That was a trap! This ship has been targeted since then."

Luffy stared at Brook, "What do you mean? We've been right here the entire time…"

"This is the wandering ghost island. Thriller Bark."

Nami interjected, "A wandering island? The log pose isn't responding!"

"That's correct. It is because it traveled here from the West Blue." Brook seemed to be excited as he ran back to the front of the ship, leaving the Straw Hats to catch up to him. "Today I was lucky! Not only did I meet new people! My wish has come true!" In one graceful leap, Brook made his way from the upper deck's railing to the top of the Sunny's figurehead.

"His body is so light!" Sanji said, shocked.

"Yohohoho! That's right my body is as light as dead bones! Now please find a way to get through this gate and leave this place. Do not drop anchor here! I was so happy to meet you. I will never forget your delicious food!" That last part caused Dorothea to smirk involuntarily. "Farewell! If fate will have it, let us meet again!" With that, he leapt off the ship.

"Hey, wait, Brook!" Luffy called out to him, to no avail. The entire crew panicked.

"Didn't he eat a devil fruit!?" Zoro noted.

"What are you doing!?" Usopp yelled.

A strange noise came from below them. Sure enough, Brook was somehow running on top of the water.

Dorothea couldn't help but feel a little jealous, "Isn't that cheating!?" Sure, she may have figured out a technique to help her cross bodies of water, but the minute she touched seawater, she was gone.

Luffy ignored Dorothea's comment, "That's so cool!"

Nami attempted to get the crew back on track, "A-anyways, Luffy. Let's do what he said. We don't know what's going on here, but we do know it's dangerous."

"Did you say something?" Luffy said sheepishly.

"Come one Nami-sa," Dorothea said, "Isn't dangerous a part of the job description? It would be rude to not help our new friend."


	6. Enter: Thriller Bark

**Before this chapter starts, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, or followed this story. You guys are the real mvps and I appreciate each and every one of you! Also, I have changed a few things in the earlier chapters because when I started this story, I wasn't sure of where I was going to take it, even though I've had Doro in my mind for years. Rip. I also hope everyone is staying safe during these weird ass months. It's not fun to be in the middle of a global pandemic, but hey at least I can't fail my senior year classes. (Though I will be failing my AP German exam, ope)**

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Thriller Park was not your everyday traveling island in the middle of a dangerous sea covered in a dark fog, but that could be due to the fact it was the only one Dorothea had ever seen. The physics behind a traveling island was impossible according to what little Dorothea knew. Then again she never was the science type, so she decided it would be better to roll with the punches than to stop and question her surroundings with her limited physics knowledge. The island was strange, it didn't seem to have a central town or anything, it's main highlight was a gothic looking castle in the middle of the island. The only greenery she could see was the grass and maybe some moss, but all the trees were rotting or completely dead.

Chopper's panic brought Dorothea out of her thoughts, "Hey, hey, where is that ghost from before? Is it still on the ship?" Dorothea cursed at herself for forgetting about the ghost.

"No, he went to the island. He probably lives there," Zoro replied, calming the frightened reindeer.

Robin walked up to the railing, next to where Luffy was sitting, "You remember that big vibration from earlier? If that was the sound of the mouth-like gate closing, then it means we were probably eaten by that mouth." Sure enough, Dorothea could see a weird mouth-like structure emerging from the fog. If it had not just trapped her and her crewmates then she would have found it very interesting, but fitting decor for the island.

Luffy cocked his head, "Eaten?"

"It's hard to see due to the fog," said Robin, pointing in the direction just to the left of the mouth structure, "But it seems as if the walls attached to the gate are surrounding the island. Meaning the ship is confined by the walls that surround the island."

This startled Dorothea, she was never a fan of being trapped. It didn't matter if it was the crushing weight of her father's expectations or a tangible wall, she wanted to leave. "That must be why Brook-sa warned us to leave."

Dorothea could hear Franky explain why they can't exactly drop anchor- it's an island that travels so they technically are in the middle of the sea- she also heard Usopp yelling about how they should focus on escaping. Instead of joining the debate, Dorothea decided to take a seat next to Zoro, who was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the grassy deck. On one hand, she wanted to find Brook and make sure he was okay, it's not every day that you meet an 80 or so old skeleton, but on the other hand, the anxiety of knowing she was trapped was overwhelming. She decided if they were swift in their rescue for Brook, her anxiety would be hidden behind her adrenaline. _'Yeah, that's how it works, totally. If I just convince myself that I'm not anxious, it'll go away. Don't people say that the brain is the most powerful part of your body? Maybe I should have read more of Law's medical textbooks' _

She craned her neck to the side only to see Nami hugging herself while sinking to the ground, "Listen, guys, I seem to have contracted the 'I can't go on the island' disease."

Nami was by Chopper who was tugging on the brim of his hat "Me too! I have it, too!"

"All right! Let's take the ship to the island!" Luffy proclaimed, holding a butterfly net in his right hand.

Usopp took a step back from Luffy, his eyes wide, "Did you contract the 'always ready for adventure; disease or something!?" He harshly pointed at the island in the distance, "Think it over, Luffy! Look at that building, it's a real-life haunted house! You're underestimating the evil spirits!"

"What are you talking about? I'm gonna be as careful as possible," Luffy held up his cage, which looked more fitted to house a bug than whatever Luffy was going to use it for, "I'll catch that ghost from earlier and feed it."

Dorothea stretched her arms, trying to calm her nerves, "Is that even ethical, Luffy-sa?"

"Are you really concerned about whether it is ethical or not?" Zoro huffed.

"Is that really how you think of me, Roronoa-sa?" Dorothea asked playfully, a smirk adorning her face.

"Honestly, I prefer not to think of you at all," Zoro quipped, leaving Dorothea a little stunned. She had her mouth open ready to make another snarky remark, but she couldn't think of anything. She solemnly turned away from Zoro and focused her attention on Franky, who was in the middle of boasting about a secret surprise for the crew.

She and Zoro made their way to the side of the ship, looking over the railing to catch a glimpse at what Franky had made. The panel on the side of the ship opened and out came an adorable little boat, with the old Going Merry figurehead. Dorothea remembered the old ship- she thought it was much cuter than her father's ship- and she was glad that the Going Merry would always be a part of the crew. Leaning over the railing, Dorothea watched as Nami, Usopp, and Chopper took Mini Merry out for a stroll. The other crew members commented on the Mini Merry as well: Luffy yelled about wanting to take it out for a ride next, Sanji mumbled something about not minding having to get groceries anymore if that's going to be his ride, and Zoro let out a genuine smile, thanking Franky for his thoughtful gesture.

After some time, Dorothea noticed she wasn't able to see the Mini Merry anymore due to the thick fog. She looked around her to see if anyone else was watching them, but it turned out that she and Sanji were the only two still by the railing. "Hey, Sanji-sa can you see the Mini Merry anymore?" Dorothea went to face the cook only to find him already staring at her. He was leaning against the railing, with one elbow propped up, supporting his head. Dorothea could feel her ears and cheeks start to burn. "Oh, um, I guess you weren't really paying attention." She wanted to yell at herself, _'Come on, tons of guys have stared at you before, what's so different now!'_

"Sorry, Dorothea-chan, I was too distracted by your angelic nature!' He gave her a smile before looking towards the sea. Dorothea watched as Sanji tried his best to locate the Mini Merry along with its three occupants. She watched as his eyes narrowed, panic and worry washing over him. "I can't see them at all."

An eerie scream pierced through the air, causing Dorothea to hold on the railings even tighter. There was no doubt in her mind that the scream originated from her crewmates. From beside her, she could hear Sanji shout, "Nami-san! What's going on!?"

"What happened? I can't see anything because of this fog," Zoro asked from the upper level.

Robin, calm as ever, replied in the monotone voice, "It came from the island."

Luffy barreled his way in between Sanji and Dorothea, "Hey! Hurry up and let me ride Merry!"

"I don't think they'll be returning anytime, Luffy-sa." Dorothea was still trying to scan the sea for any signs of the Mini Merry.

Sanji smacked Luffy upside the head, "What are you saying!? You should be worrying about Nami-san!"

"And Chopper-sa!" Dorothea added, not hiding the fact that she had a soft spot for the shortest Straw Hat.

"You two should be worrying about all three of them," Franky scolded, his arms folded.

Dorothea heard something heavy plummet into the sea. She glanced around to see if anyone had touched anything on the ship, but everyone was busy trying to figure out what was going on with the Mini Merry situation. "Guys… The anchor just dropped."

Zoro rushed to the lower level of the Sunny, "What? No one touched it though!"

"There's no way the cog-wheel could be loose, it's new!" Franky defended, "Anyway, raise the anchor again, or the ship will lose its balance."

Before anyone could wrap their heads around the circumstances behind the anchor, on the lower level deck, the hatch suddenly popped up. Zoro was the first to notice this strange occurrence and prepared himself in case there was any danger, clutching the swords that hung at his sides tighter.

Luffy stared at the hatch with confusion in his eyes, "Huh!? The hatch opened by itself? Did anyone touch it?"

"No, no one was near it… Just like the anchor." Dorothea narrowed her eyes at the hatch as if she expected something to pop out of it at any minute. After nothing appeared, Dorothea turned to her captain, about to ask what they should do about these strange occurrences, but she was met with Luffy's mouth being stretched by an invisible force.

Sanji pointed at Luffy, "What are you doing joking around at a time like this!?"

Luffy held his hands in front of him defensively, trying his best to speak, "Noh iss noh hat!"

Dorothea raised a brow. "No, it's not that?" She attempted to translate.

"Ah hihnt huu anyhin!"

"I didn't do anything?"

And with a sickening snap, whatever was holding Luffy's mouth open let go, the force almost causing Luffy to fall into the open hatch. He would have fallen in if it weren't for his stretchable arms holding on to the deck. Before he could pull himself up, one of Zoro's katanas unsheathed itself and went hurtling towards Luffy. Franky had to kick Luffy out of the way, otherwise, he would have been impaled. Dorothea knelt next to Luffy, making sure he was okay. "Roronoa-sa, what was that?"

"Sorry! My katana just…" Zoro panicked.

Dorothea could tell that he was just as unnerved as everyone else. "There has to be someone else on this ship, right? How else could you explain all of this?" Dorothea suggested. The others hesitantly agreed with her. That's when she felt something by her right calf, it was as if invisible hands were climbing up her leg, and with her last suggestion, that very well may be what was happening. Without blinking, Dorothea fashioned her right hand into a finger gun and focused the sound from the raging sea beside her into a condensed blast that she aimed at where she thought the invisible creature would be. Her sound bullets couldn't pierce through skin or anything like that, but they can easily knock a person back a few feet and if there was enough sound, it could knock a person unconscious. Her guess at where the creature was ended up being wrong as she could feel the creature tense for a second before continuing to grope Dorothea's leg, almost nearing a body part she'd rather it not touch.

"What was that, Doro?" Luffy asked from beside the girl, not noticing how stiff she had gotten.

"Something is touching my leg." Dorothea calmly replied, before shaking her right leg franticly, hoping to dissuade the creature from venturing further, but the only made it hold on tighter. Normally, she wouldn't want others to see her freaking out, but with the Straw Hats, she felt like she was able to relax a little. So, she panicked without worrying, letting out a little scream. To her left, she could hear Sanji go one about how the creature had the audacity to fondle a lady. He made his way over to Dorothea, ready to go toe-to-toe with the invisible creature, but when he neared Dorothea the creature let go of her leg, allowing her to calm down. "Okay, now I'm out for blood. Something is definitely on this ship." Once Sanji reached her, he looked over her; his face had worry written all over it as he made sure the creature did not harm her.

"Are you okay, Dorothea-chan? Did that thing hurt you?" Sanji looked at her full of concern, shaking his head, "Wherever that creature is, he's going to get it!"

Dorothea placed a hand on the cook's shoulder, "I'm fine, Sanji-sa, but right now we have to focus on the fact that we are not alone."

Robin nodded, her gaze fixated on the ground near Dorothea, perhaps where the invisible creature used to be: "Earlier, I heard a bestial howl… maybe it's connected."

"I don't care what it is, beast or no beast, it is now near the top of my hit list," Dorothea huffed, crossing her arms, "I can only imagine what's going on with the others if this is happening to us and we haven't even set foot on the island."

"Nami-san!" Sanji exclaimed as if he had left something in the oven and forgot about it (which, of course, would never happen to him). He leapt onto the railing, determination in his eyes. "As weird as this all is, I'm worried about Nami-san and the others! I'll leave the ship to you guys!" And with another leap, he left the railing. "I'm going to the island to save them!" Not long after his descent, a sickening smack could be heard, indicating that somehow Sanji ended up being smashed into the side of the ship. Dorothea could help but stifle a laugh at hearing Sanji say something akin to "Hogeeh".

As if something was holding him by his ankles, Sanji was floating above the railing from which he previously leapt from. Confusion permeated the air around the crew, but before they could do anything Sanji was harshly thrown back on deck. "What was that just now?" Sanji said as he cradled his injured arm.

Dorothea took a moment to place a cigarette between her lips. "No clue, but whatever that thing is it's confusing as hell." Fumbling with her lighter she finally managed to get her cigarette lit. "Does it want us to stay on the ship?"

Zoro clutched one of his katanas, getting ready for a fight. "I don't understand their intention… If they want to kill us, they can at least attack us."

Letting out a sigh, Dorothea agreed, "That would be preferable to fondling us."

Of course, that wasn't the end of the invisible creature's antics; the next thing the crew knew, Robin was using her Hana-Hana no mi to conjure more hands in hope of holding back the invisible creature that now was trying to lick her.

Dorothea ran over to the other girl, attempting to help her push the invisible entity off her. "What did I just say!" It wasn't long before, a loud howl rang through the air. As if the howl was a calling card, the invisible creature disappeared, causing Dorothea to almost lose her balance. "What the hell was that!?"

Sanji swiftly made his way towards the two girls. "Robin-chan are you alright?" He asked, ignoring the raging sea, that was bashing against the ship, making it incredibly hard to stand up.

"I'm fine, it disappeared," Robin answered and turned her attention to the blonde standing next to her, "Thank you, informant-san."

Dorothea offered Robin her hand, "No problem, though I can't say I really did anything." Robin took her hand and was helped up by the blonde woman. "Now, let's go save the others."

The crew finally made it to the island, but both the Sunny and Brook's ship were trapped by a thick spider web making it impossible for them to leave the island. They even managed to find the Mini Merry, which was also entangled in the web. The sea forced their ship to arrive just in front of what appeared to be the entrance to the island, which was a downward staircase. The perpetual nighttime of the island caused by the fog made it impossible to see the bottom of the staircase. This didn't detour the remaining Straw Hats in the least. Luffy led the pack, butterfly net in hand. The others followed behind at a decent pace, making sure their captain was not too far ahead of them.

"There's something at the end!" Luffy announced, readying his net. As the rest of the crew got closer to the bottom of the stairwell, they could clearly see a giant three-headed dog- well one head had the appearance of a fox- who made itself known by barking at the visitors. The crew was not phased by its intimidation tactic.

"Cerberus? That's supposed to make Hell safer?" Sanji said, not bothered by the dog in the least.

Dorothea gave the dog a maniacal grin, "I always knew I'd end up in Hell, didn't think it would be this soon."

Robin smiled at the dog, "Oh, it's cute."

"Is it trying to pick a fight?" Franky asked.

"Who knows," Zoro replied.

"Oh." Luffy readied his net, "Is it tasty?"

The three-headed dog was taken aback by the apathy the crew displayed towards it, clearly used to a greater response to its general existence. Nonetheless, the dog stood its ground, growling at the Straw Hats once more in an attempt to frighten them.

"Looks like it wants to fight now," Zoro commented. He ever so slowly got ready to confront the beast. "Then I will just have to-"

"No, wait." Luffy smiled, "Let's try to tame it."

"Idiot. I know it's a dog, but it's like the boss dog." Zoro tried to persuade his captain.

"Dogs are dogs." Luffy approached the three-headed dog, holding out his hand towards the dog, "There, there. Now, shake!"

The three-headed dog was not about to submit itself to Luffy so quickly. It lunged towards the captain, and bit him, shaking him like a chew toy using all three of its mouths. After not getting a reaction, the dog calmed down. Luffy then used one of his free hands to pat the snout of the head that currently was biting down on his head.

"There, there, there," Luffy cooed. The dog slowly released Luffy from its clutch. "That's it. You're a good boy." Once he was fully released from the dog's mouth, Luffy threw a nasty left hook, slamming the dog against the wall. "You bastard!" The dog lay there, not dead, but defeated. Luffy smiled to himself. "Down."

Now that the dog was somewhat tamed- more akin to being horrified to go against Luffy- the crew was able to get a better look at the creature. It was covered in stitches and its fur pattern and skin was inconsistent at best.

Robin crouched down next to the dog, examining its features. "What terrible wounds. It's a wonder it's alive."

Sanji poked at one of the head's ears. "There's even some fox mixed in. I don't think you could consider it a valid creature anymore."

Dorothea stared at the creature, a strange mix of pity and disgust in her eyes. "I'm sure the poor thing didn't ask to be the next Frankenstein, but it makes me wonder who would do this sort of thing."

With that, the group continued their journey with Cerberus carrying Luffy and Franky, both of whom were excited to see what this strange island would have in store for them if Cerberus was the opening act. While the others were focused on making a steady pace, Sanji was trying to call out to Nami right away.

Sanji wasn't the only person with more than enough energy. Luffy caught a strange tree-man hybrid and a unicorn in the middle of their afternoon tea and decided to kidnap them. Luffy pinned down the strange tree creature... "I caught it!"

"Me too! These are rare!" Franky said, referring to the unicorn he was holding up by the neck.

Luffy turned to the two creatures, "You guys! Do you guys want to join my crew-"

"No!" Zoro and Sanji shouted at their captain, having already gone through this process just hours earlier.

After their little setback, the crew continued to make their way towards the mansion that was the main attraction of the island.

"You need to stop trying to get everything to join our crew," Sanji said pointedly at Luffy, "We already have weird shit like a raccoon dog and robot, among other things."

"Hey! I am not a robot; I am a cyborg! Bastard," Franky rebutted.

"Well you're not human anymore, that's for sure."

"But my base was human!"

"No, your base was pervert!"

Dorothea couldn't help but laugh at Sanji's comment, it was quite ironic to hear Sanji call someone else a pervert.

Franky held his hands up sheepishly, "Well if you put it that way…"

This left Sanji shocked, barely keeping his cigarette in his mouth. "It wasn't a compliment!"

Dorothea turned her attention towards her captain, who was optimistically curious about what else they'll encounter. He sang a little tune about what will pop out of the forest next. Her other crewmate, Robin, was more focused on what they had just encountered a few minutes ago. "It's strange… That tree man and unicorn we saw…" Robin thought aloud.

Zoro overheard her, "Hm, what is it, Robin?"

"The common denominator for the odd creatures in the woods are bandages, scars from stitches, and numbers engraved on their bodies," She pointed out.

"Numbers… huh, that's true," Zoro replied as he looked at Cerberus, who clearly had the number 82 marked onto its body, "It means that they are being monitored by something."

Before anyone could say anything else, and high pitched, albeit cute, "Negative" rang out through the woods. It clearly wasn't a human as the emphasis in the word "Negative" was in the wrong spots, making it almost unrecognizable. It wasn't long before, those cute little ghosts from earlier back on the ship appeared.

"Is it… Is it multiplying?" Dorothea asked, taking a step back from the ghosts.

"Negative. Negative. Negative," The ghosts called out.

Luffy took this as an invitation to try and catch them using his net, after all that was why he originally brought it along. "I'll catch and raise them!" He slammed the net into the ghost who simply passed right through it.

Dorothea couldn't help but shake her head, "Again. Would that even be ethical?"

"They're totally spirits," Franky said, watching the ghosts. "All right… Fresh Fire" He blew out a breath of fire at the ghost who was unbothered by the flames.

"Horo Horo Horo," the ghost Franky shot at, chanted.

"No good, it didn't work."

Unbothered by the flames, it flew straight through Franky. "Horororo"

Franky crumpled to the ground, startling the rest of the crew. "It's useless, I'm totally no good this week. Everything I do is no good. I have no confidence to live. I should die."

Dorothea backed away from Franky, her eyes never leaving the ghost that passed through him. "Yeah, I'm not touching that." Whether she was referring to Franky being rendered a depressed pile of scrap metal or the ghost that left him in that state was unclear.

Luffy lunged at the ghost. "You bastard!" This caused the ghost to also pass through Luffy. Like Franky, Luffy fell to the ground, his head hung low. "If I'm going to be reborn… I want to be a shellfish."

Sanji yelled at the two of them, "What are you guys doing!?"

Dorothea was not thrilled at the idea of an innocent ghost taking away all the confidence she's built up. She tried to keep watch of where each of the ghosts were, but since there were three her efforts were fruitless. "Yeah, those ghosts are definitely doing some weird shit and I am not a fan."

Sanji heard this and quickly changed his tune, he twirled over to the somewhat startled Dorothea. "Ah! Don't worry, Dorothea-chan, I'll protect you!"

"I think Dorothea is on to something. Maybe when you touch these ghosts, your will becomes weak."

"Hmph, they're pathetic," Zoro chided, referring to Luffy and Franky, "It's because they don't usually prepare their spirits, that they get their mind played with by some weird ghosts." Not long after his stoic speech, a ghost phased through him, making it so three of their crewmates were now on the ground wallowing in their own self-pity. "I'm sorry I was born."

"That's enough!" Sanji yelled.

Dorothea watched the three of her crewmates who were affected by the ghost, "This will wear off soon, right?"

Robin nodded, "I'm sure this is temporary. These ghosts sure are interesting, on top of not having bodies, if your willpower is cut down just by touching them, then if they're our enemies, they will be a handful."

Sanji let out a breath of smoke, "That's true."

"What an odd island," Robin commented. The ghosts continued to surround the group, either chanting "Hororo" or "Negative."

Dorothea snuck closer to Robin, trying to subtly hide her body behind the slightly smaller girl. "Odd is an understatement."

After a few moments of Sanji, Robin, and Dorothea just watching the ghosts, they eventually retreated back into the forest. The other three Straw Hats quickly recovered from their acute onset depression caused by the ghosts.

Luffy was the first to fully recover. "If those ghosts come again, I won't forgive them! I'm not going to raise them either! I don't need them!"

"They must have a weakness! I'll eradicate them!" Franky yelled, cracking his knuckles.

Dorothea sighed, holding her head with her hand. _'At least their back to their old selves.' _She thought back to the ghosts they just encountered, although it was clear to tell that she was unnerved by the ghost's power, she did her best to not show how terrified she really was of them._ 'I would hate to have been reduced to the state Luffy, Zoro, and Franky were in. It's terrifying to think that no amount of physical power could protect you from those weird, soul-sucking ghosts' _


	7. And Then There Were None

**I should have been a little more specific in the last chapter. I edited chapter 2, so if you're a bit confused reading this chapter, I'd suggest going back and reading the last half of chapter 2 and that should clear things up. That's all for this little intro!**

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The group continued to make their way through the forest, Luffy, Franky, and Zoro still huffing about the previous ghost situation. Dorothea, Robin, and Sanji used the other's misfortune as an opportunity to claim a seat atop Cerberus. Sanji sat closer to the three heads, shouting at Zoro every so often, while Robin and Dorothea remained closer to the back, chatting amongst themselves. Every so often, Dorothea would jot something down in her notebook and then place it back into her short's pocket, while tucking the pen she was using behind her ear.

"I hope you don't mind me asking you this, Dorothea, but what are you writing down in your notebook?" Robin asked the blonde next to her, who was nose deep in her notebook, feverishly writing something down.

"Just some notes on the scenery and atmosphere of this island along with the details of our run in with some of the, uh, unique inhabitants," Dorothea replied, flipping through her pages, now holding her pen in her mouth, as if it were a cigarette. "Need to make sure I can accurately capture the energy of our encounters. This chapter will definitely pay homage to some classic horror and thriller novels!" She beamed at Robin, always happy to talk about her craft.

Robin smiled at her. "I can only assume you're very passionate about storytelling."

"Mhm!" Dorothea mumbled, before realizing Robin would most likely want her to elaborate on that. Sometimes she would forget a person needs to fuel the fire that is conversation in order to keep it aflame. "I always wanted to write my own tales that would inspire the future generation just as some of the comic strips from my childhood did for me." The blonde reminisced over her childhood in the North Blue, back when her family truly felt like a family. Those serene days when she would wait patiently for her father to finish reading the newspaper and hand it to her. Even though he used it as a way to see if she could pull out the important information of that issue, Dorothea's mind never cared for the weekly events, all she wanted to do was read her favorite comic strip. Suddenly another memory popped into Dorothea's mind: one she buried deep inside her mind. "And, uhm, I used to ask my mother to tell me different stories while we were out fishing. I promised her that I'd write something equally as amazing as each of the stories she told me." Dorothea scratched the back of her neck. Talking about her mother brought up emotions she couldn't even begin to describe. She wondered if her mother was still alive. If she would still want to read Dorothea's novel.

The two continued to make small talk, catching up on lost time. Robin even tried to recall events from before Dorothea officially joined the crew. Dorothea, of course, took this as an invitation to write down every single detail Robin told her, even interjecting to ask the dark-haired girl for the specifics about the environment of the island. Without realizing it, the group was out of the forest and entered an abundant graveyard.

Dorothea raised a brow at the strange change in scenery. "Some graveyard this is. I mean the graves aren't even well kept or spaced evenly." Despite her critique, she flipped to a new page in her notebook and began to record exactly what it looked like.

She almost didn't notice the hand reaching out from one of the graves Luffy was by. The hand was followed by an arm, then a shoulder, and the top half of a body. The creature was exactly what you would picture when asked what a zombie looked like: clearly dead, unnatural unpigmented skin, its eyes were sunken, and it was heavily bandaged. Dorothea had to restrain herself from laughing when her captain took one good look at the clearly undead individual and decided forcing it back in the grave was a smart idea.

The zombie, very agitated by Luffy's foolproof plan, rose from the grave once more. "I'm not going back just like that, you fool!" At this point Robin, Dorothea, and Sanji all climbed down from atop Cerberus, seeing as how a zombie just popped out of a grave and many more graves were surrounding them.

Luffy stared at the zombie and without hesitation said, "An old person with major injuries!?"

"It's a zombie any way you look at it!" The majority of the group- meaning everyone except for Robin who was silently taking everything in- yelled at their captain. With that, more and more zombies rose from their graves each of them shouting some one liner.

"Didn't know that zombies are that lively," Sanji commented, staring at the energetic undead.

"I mean we did meet a talking skeleton, not even a few hours ago," Dorothea replied, watching as the zombies got closer and closer to the group.

"Show them how dangerous zombies are!" One of the undead enemies rallied, encouraging the rest of them.

As the zombies closed in on the group, everyone prepared for a quick fight. Dorothea readied her right arm, her fingers already molded in the shape of a gun. She raised her right arm so it aligned with her line of vision. She could hear Luffy crack his knuckles: "I see, they want a fight. We can show them just how dangerous we are!"

A loud "600 million beri jackpot!" emanated from the Straw Hats as each of them took down a decent number of zombies each. The zombies couldn't even land a scratch on them and quickly surrendered. They all sat, waiting for Luffy to say something.

"What are you guys doing here?"

One of the zombies that sat towards the front answered: "we're zombies so… mainly rotting." A couple more zombies chimed in with "Yeah, a lot of rotting" and "I was rotting too!"

Luffy lowered his head so that the brim of his hat covered his eyes. "You're not lying to me, are you?" He asked sternly.

"We're sorry!" the ones who sat in the front row spoke at the same time.

"Did a guy with a long nose, a girl with orange hair, and a raccoon dog pass through here?" Luffy continued

"Aaah, yes, yes, yes," one of the zombies started.

The zombie to its right looked paranoid, "But we aren't supposed to talk about it!"

"Yeah orders!"

Luffy cracked his knuckles, giving the zombies in front of him a wicked smile. "Are you sure you won't talk?"

The first zombie quickly changed his mind. "All three of them passed through here."

Luffy asked another question: "You didn't mess with them, did you? They're my Nakama."

A chorus of "I didn't mess with them!", "No way, I wouldn't mess with them!", and "I didn't either!" followed.

"Be truthful!"

"This guy did," said a heavily bandaged zombie pointing at the zombie to his left.

"Eh! Don't sell out your friends! And you bit one of them!" the zombie he pointed at retorted.

Another zombie, who was wearing a helmet spoke up, "We all attacked them."

"Don't say that!"

The zombies didn't have much time to argue before the Straw Hats swiftly dealt with them. As the group was walking away from the cemetery, one zombie stopped them.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" The zombie said, he looked to be in the same condition as the other zombies- heavily bandaged and sewn together- and was holding a lantern. The group stopped to hear him out. "I was watching. You're horrendously strong. Will you let me talk a little?"

Luffy examined him. "An old guy with major injuries?"

"Like we said it's a zombie!" Four distinctive voices shouted from behind him.

"No, I'm an old guy with major injuries," The man explained. Ignoring the snide comments coming from some of the Straw Hats he continued, "There's a man I want you to beat! I know you guys will be able to do it! There were a bunch of victims, but if you beat him, they'll be saved! Once my shadow returns, I will thank you as much as you want."

Luffy started to piece everything together, "That's true; you don't have a shadow… Just like Brook!"

Dorothea glared at the man. "We can't help you if you don't tell us anything about this man. What do you know about who controls this place?"

The shadowless man looked up at her, "A man called Moria… He's really freighting."

On instinct Dorothea got closer to the man, cracking her knuckles. "You wouldn't happen to mean Gecko Moria!?" All Dorothea wanted to do was run back to the Thousand Sunny and get the hell away from this island.

Luffy noticed the apprehension both Dorothea and Robin had due to the name Gecko Moria. "Huh? Do you guys know him?"

Robin nodded. "I know his name well… His original bounty surpasses yours, Luffy."

Dorothea started to fidget with her fingers: bending them back one by one, twisting an imaginary ring, cracking each knuckle individually, anything to get her mind off her current situation. "Gecko Moria is a shichibukai," She blurted out.

Luffy's eyes went wide. "For real, Doro!?"

"Trust me, a shichibukai's island is the last place I want to be." She realized she never directly told anyone of her father's position as a shichibukai. Zoro and Robin must have been able to guess or already pieced it together, but the rest of Luffy's crew seemed severely behind in current events. Sure, Gecko Moria is one of the more reclusive shichibukai, but they should have at least been able to recognize his name. "Still, what's he doing here?"

The man in front of them took a deep breath. "I'm not sure, but there are many more victims around this forest. All of them just like me." He removed his gaze from Dorothea and looked towards Luffy. "Since you were led here already… You should assume that Moria has his eye on you."

Dorothea tensed up, making the lantern man instantly focus back on her. "He knows we're here?"

"Y-yeah…"

The blonde started to chuckle, but her eyes held anything but joy. "Of course, it's him, I can't seem to catch a break from these warlord types." She recomposed herself, the fear of running into a shichibukai that might use her to gain a favor from her father. Of course, she knew that her father could care less if someone tried to bring her home, but other pirates didn't know that. Then again, her father did always prattle on about how Moria shouldn't even be a shichibukai. Maybe she and her crew can make it out of here without any issue. Wishful thinking, of course. "I'm sorry, Lantern-sa. Please continue."

"Some of the victims stay behind and crawl around this while fearing for zombies. Others sail away but live in fear of the sun. Either way, we can't truly feel alive with this kind of body. For once, before I die… I'd like to walk under the sun again!" Tears streamed down his face as he pleaded with the Straw Hats, knocking over his lantern in the process. It rolled around until Luffy crouched down and stopped it.

The lantern man was not the only one sobbing; Franky's cries of admiration for the man echoed through the forest. "That's how it is!? That's tough! All right! I'll be your help. Don't worry! I'm not crying!"

"Come on, Franky. You're way too compassionate about this kind of stuff," Zoro scolded.

Sanji raised an accusatory finger at the man. "Hey! Old geezer! Only pretty ladies are allowed to persuade people with their tears! And you don't make my heart skip a beat."

Dorothea- who was as swayed by the man's tearful request as Franky was, albeit with fewer tears- took the soundwaves from Sanji's little statement and compacted it into a sound bullet and aimed it at his shoulder. The bullet wasn't nearly as forceful as her regular bullets since she used an isolated sound, so it only knocked his shoulder back slightly. "Don't be rude. The man has lost hope as it is."

"Of course, Dorothea-chan!" He swooned, clutching the shoulder her bullet hit. He wasn't in pain, no he was relishing in the indirect contact. Sanji glared at the lantern man. "You're lucky she took pity on you."

Dorothea sighed, "I don't think any of us have a choice. It looks like our captain has made up his mind already."

Sure enough, Luffy gave the man a bright smile. "Well, we're already looking for the guy who steals shadows. If he's after us, then we'll just kick his ass and you'll be saved as well!"

The man stopped his crying. "What kind words! At least, now I have some hope, even if you're doing it for your own reasons!"

Not long after their talk with the gravely injured lantern man, it started pouring.

"Should we make a run of the mansion?" Franky suggested.

The group was about to continue towards the mansion, Luffy stopped them. "Wait hold on a second! I can see a mark behind the mansion… something huge!" The crew looked towards the area Luffy was looking at.

"The fog is thinning…" Zoro said, "Wait? Is that a flag!?"

"I'm pretty sure that's a sail, isn't it?" Franky corrected.

Dorothea could see the jolly roger clear as day. "This has to be some sort of weird decoration, right?"

"That's no decoration!" A familiar voice said from behind them; it was the severely injured man with a lantern from before. He had been following them this whole time. "It's a sail of gigantic proportion. You see, Thriller Bark isn't as it seems, this island is actually the world's biggest pirate ship. The back of the mansion is where you'll find the main mast. It's also the home of Gecko Moria."

Dorothea gave the old man a thumbs up and smiled. "Thanks for the information, Lantern-sa. Your shadow will be returned in no time." She turned back to her group, to find Luffy was already running towards the gates.

"Alright! Let's go!"

After Luffy ceremoniously "unlocked" the door to the entrance with his fist, the group of Straw Hats made their way into the front room. It was large with a few portraits adorning each of the walls. The furniture was toppled over as if a battle had just occurred.

"Huh? There's no one in here," Luffy pointed out, before screeching at the top of his lungs, "Gecko Moria! I'm here to kick your ass!"

"In such a large mansion, you would think there would be at least a servant or someone in here," Zoro commented.

Dorothea pointed towards the table, "It looks like there definitely were some people here, most likely a fight took place, but why hasn't Moria-sa sent anyone to clean up the mess yet?"

Sanji started to get worried. "I hope they didn't hurt Nami-san!"

"Buhihihihi!" A voice called out from above. On further examination it turned out to be a plaque with a pig's head in the middle, that was responsible for the eerie laugh. "So, you know the name of our master. You are quite a courageous group to enter this place." The pig gave a wicked smile to the Straw Hats. "Let's welcome the guests, everyone!"

The portraits came to life, stretching out of their frames by their torsos, heading straight for the Straw Hats. There was also a bear rug that came to life, aiding the paintings.

"Are these things zombies too?" Sanji asked, his tone suggested he was more annoyed than frightened.

"That's certainly what it looks like," Robin agreed, "After everything we've seen on this island we should expect this by now."

With that the Straw Hats got to business, chopping down each of the portrait zombies and living bear rug. Dorothea focused on two zombies in front of her as they stretched their torsos toward her. She aimed a sound bullet at the left one causing it to be pushed back, allowing her to focus on one zombie at a time. She baited the zombie on the right side, jumping in the air seconds before it would have made impact with her and she fired a sound bullet downwards, hitting the zombie's head. With one zombie knocked out, she focused back on the zombie she hit earlier, who was now starting to stumble towards her again.

She held out her right hand as if she were trying to grab the zombie. "Henzutsū*," she uttered under her breath. The zombie immediately stopped and held its hands to its ears, trying to block out a sound that only it could hear. With her enemy struggling to block out the intense ringing in its ears caused by her devil fruit, Dorothea continued to increase the volume of the ringing, until finally, the zombie passed out.

By the time the Straw Hats were finished, the room looked even more like a mess than it did before. "All right, it looks like we took care of them!" Luffy smiled.

"Hold on a minute." Franky pointed towards the pig from earlier. "Still got this little piggy up here."

"That's right…" Dorothea locked eyes with the pig, who was trying desperately to not be noticed. "Hey, Luffy-sa, I bet you could use your powers to take our pig friend off the wall. That way he'd be a little more portable."

Luffy smiled at the suggestion, "Good idea, Doro!"

The pig was much more agreeable when taken down, leaving him having to stare up at all of the Straw Hats. "Now, Pig-sa, I'm sure you'd love to tell us what happened to our friends, right?" Dorothea smiled as she squatted down in front of the pig. Even crouching, her figure was still imposing.

"Oh, those three friends of yours! They're fast asleep in the bedroom! They're safe, yes indeed!"

Dorothea glared at the pig in front of her. "Sorry, Pig-sa, but I know you're lying. It was a nice attempt though."

"No! I swear it's the truth. You can go look for yourself." The pig pleaded. Dorothea was close to wrapping her hands around what little neck it had if it didn't give her an honest answer soon.

"Wait," Frank interrupted, "Something's wrong here."

Dorothea stopped focusing on the pig in front of her and looked around her. It didn't hit her right away but she did a mental check. _'1,2,3,4…'_ Her eyes widened. "Hey, where's Sanji-sa!?"

"He was just here a second ago." Luffy looked towards the defeated zombies, "Did any of you zombies see where he went?" The zombies did their best to hide their laughter, but it was clear to all that this had been premeditated.

"It looks like they took him away when we weren't looking." Zoro side eyed the zombies who were doing a terrible job at hiding their laughter. He shook his head as he sarcastically lamented, "Goodbye Sanji, we lost a good man."

Dorothea flicked the back of his head. "Be nice," She chided.

"It'll be alright. It's Sanji, he'll be okay," Luffy said, unfazed by the loss of a crewmember.

"Maybe… My concern is that if the zombies were able to nab Sanji so easily, then the other three might be in danger." Robin noted.

"Buhihi!" The pig laughed, "You shouldn't get so cocky just because you're a little bit strong. Once your friends start disappearing, you'll finally get what you deserve."

"He's right," Dorothea sighed, distraught that one of her friends is missing and that she's agreeing with an undead pig. "We should stick together from now on. Although I trust each of you to be able to fight on your own, it's safer if we stick together."

Robin nodded. "Agreed. We also can only continue using our intuition." She glanced at the pig, narrowing her eyes. "I doubt those things will tell the truth even if we threaten them."

Zoro scratched his chin. "So, let's take that pig as a guide."

"What!?" the pig exclaimed. The zombies started up their muffled laughter once more.

"Ahaha! You should go! Take him as a guide," one of the zombies chuckled. "If you want to die so badly you should challenge our master!" The pig was displeased with his allies' comments, clearly wanting nothing to do with the Straw Hats.

"Our real boss is the shichibukai, Gecko Mori- Ah! I can't even say his name!" another said.

"Those Nakama of yours are probably dead by now... Or even worse!" came from a third one. "One after another you will lose your Nakama and you shall regret it! You're the lucky ones, I'd leave right now before you encore the wrath of Gecko Mori- of our master."

Luffy started to walk towards the fallen zombies, his fists clenched. "You're noisy with all of that mumbling. Go tell that Gecko Moria that…" He stomped on a piece of broken off frame wood, that was in front of the fallen zombies, shattering it under his shoe. "If anything happens to one of my Nakama. I'll blow him off this island!" The defeated zombies were shaken by the bold statement issued by the captain, none of them sure what to say. Luffy rejoined the remains of his crew. "Besides, Sanji will be fine. It's not like he's going to roll over and die. Come on, let's go guys."

Franky grabbed the pig and the Straw Hats followed their captain out of the room and into the hallway. It was in the same gothic style as the rest mansion, meaning there was little light to keep the creepy atmosphere. Everything out aside, the mansion was well kept despite the cobwebs that littered the corners of the ceiling. Caught up in admiring the interior design, Dorothea didn't notice that a certain green haired crewmate went missing a few minutes earlier.

She assumed that he had been still next to her. When she finally did notice, she blamed it on his terrible sense of direction. She craned her neck to look behind her _'Perhaps he made a wrong turn in a one-way hall… Yeah, that makes sense.'_ Although the hallway had no twists or turns, there were still rooms he could have entered. Dorothea noticed one of the doors was slightly ajar _'Bingo! I'll just find him, and we'll make our way back to the group together. I swear Zoro-sa is the reason the buddy system was created.'_ She opened the door; before she had the opportunity to look around, something solid was wrapped around her mouth, preventing her from screaming. Dorothea went to tear it off, but something of the same material was wrapped around her torso, forcing her arms to her side.

And like that three Straw Hats were gone.

* * *

***Henzutsū - Migraine **

**Thank you all for reading! I'm going to be real there might be some changes to this story- nothing major, just thinking about changing the title of the story. But yeah this story has changed a lot from when I originally started to plot for it. Even now I'm changing some events in the future. Also if you want to see some art I made for this story then you can check out my Tumblr: lowkeyfailingatlife or you can check it out on Quotev (the other place I post this story!). Love you all 3**


	8. A Rock and a Hard Place

Finding herself in a coffin, Dorothea could feel the sides close in on her as her breathing got more erratic underneath the spider web that covered her mouth. She waited for someone to free her from her prison, but who she saw when the lid slid off was none other than Gecko Moria. She fell to her knees at the sudden opening of her coffin. She scanned the room, to the right of her she noticed two familiar bodies lying on the ground, shadowless. Zoro and Sanji. She turned back to Moria, trying her best to look as intimidating as she could despite being wrapped in spider webs.

"It's so nice to meet you, little Donquixote." Moria towered over the blonde with a maniacal smile on his face. "Oh right, you can't talk right now. Kishishishi! Let me fix that for you." He snapped his fingers and a large spider with the head of a mouse crawled over to where Dorothea was and used its front legs to cut the web around her mouth.

"If you're going to steal my shadow you might as well get it over with," she snapped, eyeing her crewmates on the floor before looking back up at Moria, "Or maybe you like playing with your food? Shame on you, that's just not proper etiquette."

"Trust me, I would love to, but that would be bad business." Dorothea's eyes widened as Moria continued, "Though, the idea of returning you to your father without your shadow has crossed my eyes. How much I would give to see the almighty Doflamingo utterly powerless as his daughter disappears right before his eyes the moment you step into the sun."

"Listen, you might think that you have finally gained a leg up on my father but trust me he could care less about what happens to me here. He's not going to ruin his pride by coming all this way to pick me up." Dorothea remembered the last time her father called. It was always difficult to discern what he truly was feeling, but she could grasp that he was annoyed at her sudden leave, which was expected, but whether that was because he cared for her or if he was just inconvenienced by her departure. Deep down she wished that Moria was right, that her father cared enough to strike a deal.

Moria was not impressed when Dorothea pointed out the hidden flaw in his plan. His crooked smile dropped. "I wouldn't count on that. For all I know, you could be lying to me right now. And I am not going to pass up the opportunity to knock your father down a peg."

"Have fun with that," Dorothea said as she rolled her eyes at the shichibukai. She found her thoughts drifting away from her own fate at the hands of Moria and towards what would happen to her comrades. It was clear that the Straw hats were a crew unlike any other, she had no doubt that they would make it through this, but that didn't stop her from worrying over the terror they would have to overcome.

"Now that we've had our little chat, I'm going to put you in safekeeping. I wish we could have talked longer, but I am expecting your captain to arrive any minute now." Moria's smile returned. He snapped two times and two more giant mice headed spiders appeared. "Take this one to one of the spare bedrooms. Make sure she is kept tied up, can't have her running around the place. And take these two back to their ship, I have no use for them anymore."

Dorothea could see one of the spiders crawl towards her. She looked at the creature in disgust, before turning back to Moria. "You know, my captain is going to burn this place to the ground." Giving one last smirk before being carried away.

Not too long after Dorothea and Moria's talk, most of the Straw Hats foundd their way aboard the Thousand Sunny, whether intentional or not. While Luffy and Zoro were focused on food and their pride respectively, Sanji had noticed something wrong with the number of people on the ship.

"Wait where's Nami? Is she outside or something? Not to mention Dorothea..."

"About Nami…" Usopp choked out, looking to Chopper for support.

Sanji grabbed Usopp by his shirt, "You let Nami get kidnapped!? Why didn't you chase her kidnapper down to the ends of the earth!" Sanji shouted in Usopp's face.

"You see the circumstances we were under meant we didn't really have a choice!"

"Who did it!? Give me their name, I'll get her back immediately!" Sanji released Usopp, who backed away slowly.

"You need to listen to the whole story!" Usopp directed his attention towards the rest of the Straw hats. "Okay, there are two- maybe three- important things we can't afford not to get back."

Luffy instinctively replied, "Food… Nami… Doro… and our shadows. That makes four doesn't it?"

"Er... One of those isn't really a priority. In the meantime, let's focus on Nami, Dorothea, and our shadows."

Sanji turned towards those who were with him and Dorothea at Thriller Bark, his anger returning. "So, Dorothea is missing then! What the hell happened to her!"

Robin rested her face on the palm of her hand, about to say something when Usopp cut her off. "Let's take this one step at a time. Let us compare our experiences and then we can figure out what to do next."

Once, Usopp finished explaining their time on Thriller Bark, Sanji was aflame with rage, shouting "Marriage! Are you shitting me!? I'll never permit it!"

Luffy's jaw dropped. "He must have some balls to marry Nami! And… And I'm a giant? They can create a zombie just like that?"

Zoro glanced up at Usopp. "In that case, we know the identities of Luffy and the cook, right? That leaves just me and Dorothea." To Zoro's dismay, Usopp was busy huddling in the corner over the discovery that their enemy was once again a shichibukai.

Luffy snapped out of his shock. "Huh, so if the zombie doesn't have to look identical to the real person… Then I saw Zoro's zombie."

"What did he look like?"

Luffy placed his hands on his hips, proud that he was able to identify his friend's personality. "He gave out a familiar aura and had the same equipment as you" He paused. "I knew it wasn't you though."

"So that leaves just Dorothea."

Sanji was quick to react to the woman's name. "If she was taken like us, then why isn't she here? Could we have just missed her!?"

Usopp pinched his chin, in a thinking motion. "You, Zoro, and Luffy were out cold. It was hard to wake you guys up…" A light bulb went off inside his head. "Quick, does anyone know Dorothea's favorite thing in the world?!"

Robin was the first to answer, "I don't think she's on the ship."

"Huh!? But she was taken like the other three?" Usopp panicked.

"Do you remember her reaction to finding out this is Gecko Moria's ship?" She turned to those who were in their group. "She wasn't exactly thrilled to be in a shichibukai's territory. I'm not totally sure… But I think Gecko Moria is planning to use her as leverage."

Luffy cocked his head. "Leverage? Even if he took Doro, we're still going to kick his ass."

Robin shook her head. "No, she's not being used against us." Her brows knitted. "If my assumption is correct, then her father is also a shichibukai. I believe that Gecko Moria is going to try and return her to her father to try and use her as a bargaining chip of some sort."

The crew had mixed reactions. Usopp and Chopper were back in the corner, sulking and cowering, saying "Please, not another shichibukai."

Luffy was confused as to why Moria would try and give her back. "Well, we'll just have to get her back before her dad gets here!"

While on the other side, Sanji's rage increased tenfold. "First, an arranged marriage, and now Dorothea is being shipped back to her father! We just reunited!"

During his fit of rage, a familiar sound could be heard, emanating from the Galley. _Pururururu._ Dorothea had left her Den Den Mushi on one of the counters, forgetting to pack it in her backpack before leaving. Blinded by his anger, Sanji foolishly answered the Den Den Mushi, holding the speaker as close as he could to his mouth he answered, "Sorry, Dorothea can't talk right now, she's been kidnapped by a shitty shichibukai." He hung up before the caller could utter a single word.

Meanwhile, Dorothea was left with only her thoughts as she was stuck waiting for absolutely anything to happen around her. Since her legs weren't bound, she was able to pace around the room. Dorothea even attempted to kick the door down, but it wouldn't budge. Tired of nothing happening, she would try again and again to get the door open. In the middle of one of her attempts to blast down the door- this time she tried to use her own screams to power one of her bullets to break the lock- she heard someone nearing her room.

"Who is making all that racket!?" The voice was followed by the door being opened by a strange man. His mouth was that of a lion, but the rest of him looked to be completely human. What Dorothea noticed immediately was the familiar body he was carrying. Nami. He looked at Dorothea, who despite having her arms bound to her side, still had both of her hands making a finger gun gesture. "Oh! You must be the lovely Dorothea!" He was met with silence. "Hm, you could be helpful. I guess I'll just have to bring you along."

Dorothea took a step back. "Hold on. I don't think Moria-sa would be too happy about this, right?" She asked, trying to by herself some time.

"I don't have all day here! But since I am so kind, I'll answer your question. Moria would be fine with this. I mean all I'm asking is for you to pick out a dress for my lovely bride!" His anger quickly melted away at the mention of his bride. Dorothea could only assume that he meant Nami _'Marrying Nami is essentially a death sentence, so maybe everything will be fine in the end. If Nami doesn't kill him, then one of the Straw Hats will… I guess that includes me now… Yeah, I'm about ready to dig this guy an early grave.' _

Dorothea breathed out a sigh of relief. "So, you want me to help find Nami a suitable wedding dress? That's all?"

The man nodded. "Now do I have to take you by force, or will you follow on your own accord?"

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, after all, if she could get her and Nami alone then maybe they could work on a plan to escape. Or at the very least, they would be together, making it easier for the rest of the Straw Hats to find them. Giving him a false smile, she agreed.

As they were walking down the hall, they passed a mouse headed spider. The moment the man noticed it, he smirked. "Hey! Spider mouse" He called, the spider turning its body to face him, "Make sure this one next to me won't be able to talk."

Dorothea stopped in her tracks. "Wait, you can't just-" Her words got cut off by the spider wrapping her mouth.

"You're still our prisoner, I can do what I want. I also happen to know about your pesky devil fruit. Don't think I haven't forgotten about you almost shooting me." Dorothea thought he was referencing her attempted breakout from earlier, but she saw how his eyes lingered on her legs. Her eyes widened as she realized this was the man who was terrorizing the crew on the Thousand Sunny. Dorothea and the man continued making their way down the hallway, albeit Dorothea a lot less eager to be near the person next to her.

Still loosely following behind the lion mouthed man, Dorothea noted that none of their conversations had stirred Nami. The man wasn't exactly delicate when carrying Nami and from what Dorothea has seen, Nami isn't a deep sleeper. Her hopes of Nami waking up anytime soon dimmed but staying close to Nami was the only way she could attempt to protect her friend. Even if she was currently bound in spider webs.

They take a left and enter a shining white room, where Dorothea finds two, very short, zombies await. There are paintings lining the room, eyeing their every move with excitement as if they had been waiting for this very moment.

"Absalom-sama!" The shortest zombie said. He was more stout and was fiddling with one of his eyes. But, if anything, at least Dorothea could stop calling Absalom, the lion mouthed man.

Absalom responded bluntly, "Are the preparations for the ceremony finished?"

"Hehehe, they're always ready," The short zombie said as Absalom dropped Nami onto the table near the two zombies. Dorothea wanted to yell at them for looking at her friend like she was some doll for them to dress up.

"Begin the ceremony right now." Absalom glared at the zombie. "Let this one," He pointed to Dorothea who was trying her best to blend into the background despite being very clearly not a zombie nor a painting, "Help pick out my bride's dress. And then take them both to the church."

The zombie looked up at Absalom. "Huh? Both of them?"

"I need a witness to make our marriage official." On that note, Absalom left the room, leaving Dorothea with two zombies and an unconscious Nami.

The short zombie, who previously was talking to Absalom, turned towards her. "So, you are to pick out the dress? Hm, I guess a woman would know these things… Not to mention you must surely know modern fashion better than we do."

Dorothea let out a muffled response, trying anything to communicate.

"Silly me! I forgot you were given a muzzle. Forget I asked anything. You just nod towards the dress you think is the prettiest and I'll get to work." The thought of letting these two zombies dress Nami was enough to send shivers down Dorothea's back. At least it wasn't Absalom himself.

The zombie brought her to a closet full of beautiful bridal gowns. Sure, Dorothea had stopped a few weddings- all thanks to her sister- but she had never even thought about wedding dresses. Being a pirate on the high seas didn't leave room for marriage. Not even her parents had been married. Commitment was something rare for most pirates; either you left your family or were not able to see them often as you wanted as it could endanger them. Her mind was busy trying to wrap her head around the idea of marriage, that Dorothea absentmindedly nodded at a random dress in the closet and walked away.

She kept a close eye on Nami as the two zombies got to work making sure the measurements for the dress were correct. Although, she did stare down at her feet when they started to undress Nami. No matter how much Dorothea wanted to keep a close eye on her friend, she still wanted to give her some dignity. Feeling helpless was not something Dorothea enjoyed, she wanted to rip those two zombies apart for what they were doing. Alas, she was stuck trying desperately to avoid looking at a half-dressed Nami.

After what felt like hours of Dorothea avoiding looking at Nami in order to try to respect her privacy, the short zombie walked over to her. "It's time to get you, two ladies, down to the church."

Dorothea nodded and walked with the two zombies, who were trying to carry Nami by themselves. It was a strange sight, but it wasn't like Dorothea could help them, her arms were glued to her side. Even if she could direct a sound bullet towards the zombies, there wasn't nearly enough sound to knock them out.

The church was surprisingly bland for a wedding. Absalom must have not cared about the typical flashiness attributed to weddings. Dorothea was stuck on why he would go through the pain of finding wedding dresses and making sure his bride was all dolled up only for him to skimp on the rest of the wedding. _'Right, he's a pervert.'_ The two zombies did their best to have Nami stand upright, eventually, they had to get some taller zombies to hold her upright during the ceremony.

Dorothea was allowed a front-row seat to the entire ceremony. She wasn't quite sure why Absalom needed her as a witness, maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was the only one around that wasn't a zombie. More and more zombies piled into the church for Absalom's wedding, making it very clear that even if Dorothea were to break free, she wouldn't be able to protect Nami and fend off everyone in the room. Soon enough, Absalom, himself, made an appearance, shaking hands with some of the guests as if this were a regular run of the mill wedding. She gritted her teeth watching the ceremony unfold before her. As much as she wanted to close her eyes and pretend this wasn't happening to Nami, she needed to keep a close eye on her friend just in case.

As if on cue, the whole church began to shake right as Absalom went in for a kiss. Just as Absalom began to throw a fit over his current situation, one of his underlings came barreling into the church. He explained how Thriller Bark was caught in a strange current, causing extreme swaying and how the current was due to a special zombie steering the ship.

"General zombies! All of you, go!" Absalom commanded. The church quickly emptied as zombie soldiers were racing towards the exit, leaving Absalom, Nami, Dorothea, and a few straggler zombies alone in the church. Absalom made sure to keep a couple fighters by Dorothea as a precaution.

Dorothea wished she could have photographed Absalom's face when a certain blonde cook burst through the church doors screaming, "Nami-san! I've come for you!" Dorothea was making mental notes of the scene as she truly felt like she was in the middle of a childhood fairytale. Nami as the beautiful princess in need of assistance and Sanji her knight in shining armor. Of course, that's about as far as the comparison goes as Nami and Sanji's personalities were not suitable for those roles. "There you are!" He was smiling from ear to ear. It would have been cute if not for their current predicament. He twirled around the remaining zombies and past the two guard zombies by Dorothea, who were now on high alert. The poor zombie who was given the honor of holding Nami up was greeted with Sanji's foot smashing into his face, sending him flying. "Let go of her, you bastard!"

Instead of a zombie lazily holding Nami upright, Sanji stood there holding her bridal style. "Sorry to make you wait, Nami-san. Your knight has arrived." He looked down at her in awe. "Huh!? A goddess!? O… Oh! It's Nami-san, no doubt about that! I thought I was saving a goddess by mistake!" Absalom was in shock from everything that just happened, buying the straw hats a few extra moments.

As much as Dorothea loved this fairytale moment come to life, she was still useless and bound by spiderweb. It was clear Sanji had not noticed her yet, as the zombie guards were standing directly in front of her and Sanji. Dorothea let out a couple of muffled screams, to let him know she was in the room as well. She hoped that Sanji heard her, or else she got spider web in her mouth for nothing.

Keeping Nami close to him, Sanji twisted his head towards Dorothea. His mouth hung open as he realized there were now two ladies to protect. "D-Dorothea-chan!?" His face went pale as he saw Dorothea's figure. He looked at the two guards, anger written all over his face. Still holding Nami, he kicked the two guards away from Dorothea. He placed Nami next to her and began to undo her binds.

The minute the webbing around her mouth was ripped off Dorothea began to talk. "Nice to see you again, Sanji-sa." She smiled; her eyes trailed over to Nami as Sanji continued to tear off the spider webs one layer at a time. "I trust you to deal with Absalom… Er, the guy who was about to marry Nami." Sanji's hands tensed up at the mention of Nami's kidnapper. "Those two guards aren't going to be down for long. I can deal with them while you focus on Absalom."

Dorothea was about to get up, thrilled at the fact she was able to move her arms freely, but Sanji reached out and grasped her arm. "Wait, I don't want either of you two to get hurt. Let me deal with both of them," He pleaded, his voice stern but gentle.

Dorothea pulled her arm back. "I appreciate the concern. I really do, but right now _our _priority is to protect Nami. I trust you to take care of Absalom, so all I ask of you is to trust me in return." She gave the cook a smile. Looking over the cook's shoulder, she could see Absalom shaking his head, clearly, the shock of Sanji ruining his wedding was wearing off. "Absalom is just about done processing what just happened. I wish you the best of luck." Dorothea gave him a thumbs up before running over to the area where her two guards were brushing off their injuries.

From behind her, Dorothea could hear a delayed "I trust you."

The zombie guards were now fully awake and weren't slowed down by their previous injuries. The two of them were much taller and studier than the other zombies Dorothea had encountered. Unlike some of the other zombies, these two were wearing armor that was reminiscent of a knight. Their eyes, or where their eyes would have been, were covered in shadow due to their helmets. The two guards didn't allow Dorothea to analyze them anymore and readied their lances. The two of them charged towards Dorothea, aiming at her stomach. She waited till the last second to leap above the two weapons, causing them to collide and the tips of the lances to break apart. Dorothea used her devil fruit to remain in the air longer than normal, making sure she was able to angel herself towards one of the zombie guards. Stopping the soundwaves preventing her fall, Dorothea came crashing down on one of the guard's helmet, knocking him out.

The other guard watched nervously as Dorothea stood up, kicking the fallen guard to make sure he was truly unconscious. Cracking her knuckles, she looked at the terrified guard, still clutching his broken lance. Curiously, Dorothea looked past the guard for a moment to check in on Sanji and Absalom. She was pleased to see Absalom being kicked into the wall, leaving a huge dent. Dorothea would have been wholly proud if not for what Sanji and Absalom were talking about in the midst of battle. She couldn't make out Sanji's entire monologue, but it was along the lines of "You ate the one devil fruit that would allow me to spy on women." If she were not in the middle of a battle, she would have reprimanded him for his perversion.

With Sanji doing just fine against Absalom, Dorothea brought her attention back to the final guard who gathered up the courage to face her once again. "Alright, time for round two." The guard was now using his broken lance as a bo staff, jabbing it at Dorothea with intense speed. She was just barely able to dodge each of the attacks. If the guard continued at his current speed, Dorothea would soon be backed against the wall. Luckily for her, the guard's attacks started to slow down, giving Dorothea more time to react. Using her arm, she blocked an incoming jab, leaving the guard's torso exposed for an incoming attack. Without hesitation, Dorothea used the noise of Sanji and Absalom's battle to charge a sound bullet. It hit the guard's stomach armor, knocking him back a few feet. Right as the guard held his head up to look at Dorothea, she fired another bullet hitting the guard's forehead. He was knocked back, once again, landing by his fallen comrade.

Taking in a breath of fresh air, Dorothea dusted off her clothing before checking in with Sanji. Opposed to her last check-in, Sanji wasn't completely dominating the battle. Instead, he was holding Nami above his head with both arms and taking multiple blows to his body caused by an unseen force. _'Shit, Absalom's up to something.' _

There wasn't as much sound as Dorothea would have liked, but Absalom calling out his attack names in rapid-fire succession was enough fuel to fire a few sound bullets that would knock him away from Sanji and Nami. The problem was she wasn't able to see where Absalom was, she could only guess based on his last attack. After firing her first bullet, Absalom laughed. "You know, you could be running away right now. But you decided to help this pervert. How touching."

His comment and Dorothea's sound bullet was enough to draw Sanji's attention to the girl. Trying to keep himself upright, Sanji called out to the blonde, "Dorothea-chan, are you okay?" Even when taking a beating at the hands of an invisible enemy, he still made time to worry over his crewmates- especially the women of the crew.

Dorothea's anger grew as she heard Sanji's strangled voice. "I'm fine Sanji-sa, but you clearly aren't." Firing a couple more bullets to no avail, Dorothea grew furious. "You bastard! Don't be a coward, face us for a fair battle!" She could hear a muffled snicker as Absalom tried to contain his amusement.

"It's adorable hearing a Donquixote talk about a fair battle." Absalom continued to evade Dorothea's sound bullets and land multiple attacks on Sanji. "I think you pervert is going to collapse any second now. I'm sure Moria won't mind if you get a little roughed up."

Dorothea could tell Absalom wasn't bluffing, Sanji was taking hit after hit, while she could only watch. Closing the distance, Dorothea ran towards Sanji. "Hand Nami over to me, I can take the hits for a while!"

Sanji looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. Right as he was about to decline her offer, Absalom stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife. He let go of Nami, gently tossing her in Dorothea's direction, who swiftly picked up Nami bridle style. Sanji was on his hands and knees, keeping his face down. "Forgive me… My blood, I can't let it soil Nami's white dress. I'm counting on you Dorothea-chan to protect Nami and yourself while I destroy this bastard." Dorothea could only nod as she watched the cook climb to his feet, stopping briefly to look at the puddle of blood he left on the floor beneath him. "You sure like to sneak around, invisible man. I no longer have any interest in that dream. I no longer care if I become invisible anymore…" He paused to catch his breath. "I will peep regardless of any devil fruit!" Dorothea rolled her eyes at his comment If Sanji was not her crewmate, she would have walked out the church doors. But she couldn't leave when one of her friends was bleeding on the ground and the other unconscious in her arms. Sanji must have noticed something that Dorothea hadn't as he grabbed Absalom, keeping him from getting closer to the girls.

Absalom tried to wriggle his way out of Sanji's grasp. "Huh!? Let me go!"

Sanji let out a chuckle, "like hell I will, you fucking bastard. If you really are made of a variety of beasts… I can make excellent minced meat." He let go of Absalom, only for the lion-faced man to be met with a barrage of kicks, sending his body flying into the wall. Dorothea remained on high alert since Absalom was still invisible it was hard to figure out if he was unconscious or if he was still kicking.

Dorothea was glad to see Sanji back on his feet, making his way towards her and Nami. He gave them a lopsided smile. "Are you both okay?"

"We're fine, but we have to get you to Chopper soon." Dorothea took a moment to assess all of Sanji's injuries. Sanji reached for the knife still in his back. "Don't you even try to take that thing out!"

"Huh? I don't mean to sound rude, Dorothea-chan, but having a knife stuck in my shoulder isn't my favorite feeling in the world." He stopped to stare at Dorothea, taking her beauty in. "But being near you is making me feel better already!"

Dorothea shook her head. "It's riskier to take it out right now. Trust me, we'll get you to Chopper and he can take it out." She turned her head to the side, not making eye contact with Sanji. "Maybe if you don't make any more perverted comments, I'll help Chopper tend to your wounds. After all, I have some medical knowledge."

Sanji started to sway, looking as if he were going to faint. "That sounds wonderful, Dorothea-chan!"

"Deal then, we should get out of here and-"

A rumble shook the church. Pieces of the ceiling started to break away, revealing a giant purple foot.

* * *

**I try to get these chapter out once a week, but with AP testing and my birthday being last week, it was hard to find time to write. I can safely say that my AP Lit and AP German tests went well. We don't talk about my AP Macro test—can we please just go back to the barter system please. I am so done with money. For all of you who had to take the AP tests this year… rip us. Anyway, thank you all once again for reading! 3 **

**Also it's 2:30 in the morning… whoops**


	9. The Giant Zombie: Oars

_A rumble shook the church. Pieces of the ceiling started to break away, revealing a giant purple foot._

Dorothea tried to use her own body to shield Nami from the incoming rubble. "What the fuck is that thing!?"

"No way… That's Luffy's zombie!" Sanji said, his eyes trailed back to Dorothea and Nami, "We have to leave now, I can carry Nami for you."

"It's fine-" Dorothea was caught off guard by a sudden lack of Nami in her arms. "Huh!? What the hell- Absalom, you bastard!" She scanned the room, looking to see if there was any sign of Absalom.

"Oh, how the tables have turned," Absalom's disembodied voice jabbed. At this point, Luffy's zombie was now fully standing in the church. His knees just barely below the roof of the church.

Sanji glared at the area the voice came from. "You're still alive? Show yourself!"

Absalom's voice was now further away, behind the giant zombie's legs. "This 'devil' finally fell under our rule," he said, referring to the zombie in front of him, "I'll be taking my bride now."

Dorothea started to chase after Absalom, not paying attention to the building crumbling around her, she screamed, "Like hell, you will!" Before she could get far, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, pulling her away from the falling cement. Despite Sanji's attempt to protect Dorothea from the collapsing building, they both were knocked around by the falling debris. Sanji did his best to try and shield Dorothea from getting hit, but they both managed to get scrapped. They landed in front of Luffy's giant zombie, who they could now see in his full glory. "Shit, that bastard's getting away with Nami-sa…"

"Come out, Straw hat!" the giant roared, gaining Dorothea and Sanji's full attention. His voice was almost the same as Luffy's, but it was pitched down and had a guttural tone to it. Contrasting Luffy's never-ending childish tone.

"So, that bastard wants to interfere." Sanji picked himself off the ground and helped Dorothea up.

Dorothea nodded. "Looks like we're going to have to go through him if we want to rescue Nami." The giant continued to stomp around the area, kicking up more walls.

Sanji looked at the giant then back to Dorothea. "I'll take this guy on, you get out of here. I won't stand around and watch you get hurt. It's bad enough I couldn't save Nami," He pleaded. Dorothea opened her mouth to retort, in her family men and women were expected to pull their weight during battle and she would be damned if she was going to let a valued friend fight against an undead giant while she ran away. That was until she looked into his eyes. He looked at her as if it would break him to look away as if she was going to be whisked away any minute just like Nami. Then he said one more thing. "Dorothea-chan, please trust me."

Her eyes soften. "I trust you; I really do. But nothing you can say will let me allow you to face that monster by yourself. I promise I'm not going to make myself a martyr, but I will be a part of this fight whether you like or not." Her tone was stern but gentle. She gave Sanji a thumbs up and said. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. Let's kick this monster's ass!" Before Sanji could protest, Dorothea used her devil fruit powers to bounce from one piece of debris to the next. In no time, Sanji caught up to her, as even with her devil fruit giving her a boost, her legs were nowhere near as strong as his.

They stood, side by side, on a piece of rubble directly in front of the giant zombie. "Hey! What are you doing blocking our path, Luffy!?" Sanji yelled up at the monster.

The zombie stopped rampaging and looked down at the two blondes. "...Luffy? He is my enemy. My name is Oars! Nice to meet you!" Oars then proceeded to look at his right arm, focusing on a specific area.

Dorothea leaned closer to Sanji. "Hey, those wouldn't happen to be the crew's wanted posters would it?"

Sanji deflated at the mention of his wanted poster. "It would look like it… Huh? I can't seem to make out your beautiful wanted poster, Dorothea-chan. Since you joined recently, Moria must have not known you are with us." Dorothea huffed in response. She knew it was going to take some time for the world to fully see her as a Straw hat and not just a runaway.

Oars lowered his right arm. "Completely alike. You're one of those pirates." The giant then focused on Dorothea. "I don't see her poster, but if she's with you, she must be a Straw hat as well." Her pride in being recognized was dwarfed by panic when Oars reeled his arm back. "Gomu Gomu no…" He swung forward, aimed at the piece of rubble Sanji and Dorothea were standing on. "Kama!" The two blondes evaded the attack, jumping away in two different directions. The impact of the punch crushed the piece of rubble they were standing on, sending pieces flying.

Sanji managed to land on the ground without a problem, acting fast and running towards the monster. Unfortunately for Dorothea, she ended up getting hit by flying debris while dodging Oar's attack. Getting blown away with the debris, left her right leg partially stuck under a piece of rubble. She could only watch as Sanji managed to land a kick on Oar's head, only to be swatted away as if he were an annoying gnat.

Dorothea couldn't look away from the scene unfolding in front of her. Oars held Sanji by his legs, preparing to smash him into the ground. With the help of her devil fruit, she managed to shoot the piece of rubble off her leg. The strange thing was, the sound she was using came not from Oars, but from awfully familiar frequencies around the area, meaning her crewmates were around watching as well. As Dorothea attempted to stand, someone shot a flaming bullet at Oars. Dorothea quickly realized that even if the shot caused Oars to lose focus on Sanji, that doesn't mean he's in the clear yet. She watched as Oars got ready to throw Sanji to the wayside.

In spite of her injured leg, Dorothea used the sound around her to boost her jumps, making her fly towards Sanji with an intense speed that she could barely control. As Oars released Sanji from his grip, sending him flying towards the ground, Dorothea quickened her pace even more. Once she reached Sanji, she placed herself behind him, holding him against her chest. She twisted herself so that her feet were facing the ground and tried to slow their impact speed by using her devil fruit to push her and Sanji away from the ground via soundwaves she focused near her feet. Although she was able to slow them down, they both crashed into the ground, Dorothea still keeping an arm wrapped around Sanji.

Dorothea's vision came and went with varying degrees of clarity and there was an awful ringing in her head. Using what little strength she had, she looked at Sanji, who laid next to her. He was out cold. She relaxed her head, trying her best to stay awake and aware of her surroundings, but her eyes grew tired. She could hear the other Straw hats fighting against Oars; one by one they fell from their hiding spots, landing in the same area as her and Sanji. She could hear more and more destruction as the others continued to fight Oars.

It wasn't long before everything came to an eerie halt. Oars was no longer wrecking the buildings and bridges around him. All Dorothea could hear was a strained, "You… You bastard! Luffy!" Having gotten used to the crew, Dorothea could recognize it as Usopp, who must have been in a similar condition to the rest of the crew.

"I don't know you guys at all… I am Moria-sama's servant. Oars!" Content with the damage he'd done, Oars checked his right arm once more. "That leaves…" He trailed off examining the wanted posters, "The 'Straw hat' from before, the 'orange women', and the 'cool hero'."

'_Wait? The cool hero? Who the hell is that? Do we have another member the others just forgot to mention?'_

Oars scratched his head, turning away from the fallen Straw hats, "Three more, huh… Where are they?" The giant ignored the Straw hats, assuming their battle was finished.

Dorothea felt something stir next to her, she assumed it was Sanji finally waking up. Her suspicions were confirmed when he heard an overzealous, "I'm in the arms of a true angel!" Despite her condition, she let out a pained laugh at his comment, just happy that he was alright.

Sure enough, when she opened her eyes, she saw Sanji staring down at her. She gave him the biggest smile she could muster up. "Are you okay, Sanji-sa?"

Helping her up, Sanji wrapped an arm around her waist and placed her arm around his shoulders to help her stand upright. "I wish you would have left like I told you to." He frowned.

"And let you have all the fun. No way."

"Dorothea-chan…"

"Who knows, maybe I would have run into even more trouble. If I'm going down, I'm going down alongside my friends." She took one step with her right foot and immediately hissed in pain. It would have been fine if her leg had just been stuck, but due to Dorothea rushing to break Sanji's fall, the pain in her leg only worsened.

"We should find you a place to rest." Sanji scanned the area for a place where Dorothea would be away from the fighting.

Dorothea released herself from Sanji's grip, forcing herself to stand by herself. "I'm fine! Look, I'm standing on my own!" she said cheerfully, "Let's meet up with the others. I'm sure they're in worse shape than we are." Sanji nodded, agreeing with the girl. Dorothea quickly made a mental rundown of how much damage Oars did to Sanji as they walked. "Hey, Sanji-sa, did the knife in your shoulder get knocked out during the fight?"

He looked confused for a second and patted the area where the knife was jammed into. "Huh? Yeah, I guess it did."

She pouted and slowed her pace to take a look at Sanji's back. "I'm no Chopper, but my guess is that you'll live. Doesn't look like it hit anything vital," She mumbled, surprised at how resilient Sanji was despite his injury. It didn't take long to figure out that most of the crew tended to have a high pain tolerance and/or endurance. That still didn't stop her from worrying over her friends.

By the time they made it to where the rest of the crew was located, Oars was hanging upside down from one of the main buildings. Dorothea gave a smile to the rest of the crew, excited to fight alongside them.

"I've got an idea…" Zoro started, "How about we send this guy flying?"

"Se-send him flying!? He's a giant!" Usopp's eyes bugged out of his head.

Sanji took a drag from his cigarette. "That would be great." He said, ignoring Usopp.

Zoro gave Oars a devious smirk. "Seeing him move like Luffy with that huge body was a surprise."

Robin nodded. "He'd make a terrible pirate king."

"His voice is making my ears hurt," Dorothea spit.

Frank adjusted the piece of the column he was holding. "How to take him down… I've got a ton of ideas!"

"He must have some weak point," Chopper added.

"To catch a big fish," Sanji said, taking a drag of his cigarette, "You usually would weaken it slowly."

Usopp stood eerily still, staring up at the giant. "I am super scared."

Wasting no time, Oars prepared another attack, launching himself into the air. He wasn't precise with his aim and ended up crushing the area in front of the crew instead of actually crushing anyone. The Straw hats still had to move quickly to avoid the debris. Dorothea could hear Franky shout about "combined strength" and "tactic fifteen." She looked towards the person next to her for some help, as she'd never heard of "tactic fifteen". Robin happened to be the person next to her and after seeing her face, Dorothea surmised that "tactic fifteen" was not something she wanted to be involved with.

She watched in horror as Franky started to build a human mecha robot out of their crewmates. Sanji and Zoro supported Franky's legs, while Chopper was atop Franky's head, and Usopp acted as an extension of Franky's left arm. The two women could only stare in disgust at the rest of their crew. Franky looked shocked as he looked at his right arm to find it empty.

"Hey! Nico Robin, what are you doing!? Dock with the right arm! Hurry!"

Dorothea turned towards Oars, who was just sitting there, excitedly waiting for the robot to be complete. The blonde girl turned her head towards Oars and used her hand to block out "tactic fifteen"."I don't know these people" she said as an aside to the giant, who ignored her. _'Is this a common occurrence? Since I agreed to join, does that mean I'll have to be a part of… Whatever that is, eventually?'_

Usopp tried to encourage the woman, "Come on, Robin! Do it just like me!"

"As a person, I am embarrassed."

Frank, Usopp, and Chopper paled at her words, clearly not expecting her to refuse that harshly. Even Oars was upset at the delay. "Why did you stop?" He asked, Luffy's curious nature peaking through. With the lack of excitement, Oars jabbed at the human robot, sending the top half of the human pyramid flying

Dorothea didn't waste any time. She outstretched her arms, both of her palms facing out towards Oars' head. "Hidoi Henzutsū*." Even with her blocking out everything around her and solely focusing on Oars, his reaction to her intense migraine was not what Dorothea hoped for. He searched around for the source of the annoying ringing in his ears, but to a normal human, they would have passed out by now. The giant clasped his hands over his ears and searched for the source of the sound. It was clear to tell the sound was disorienting him, making it easier to knock him off balance. Oars spotted Dorothea and put everything together quickly. He raised his arm to swat Dorothea away but was distracted by a rock Sanji had kicked at his face.

"Don't touch my lovely Dorothea-chan!"

Oars turned his focus to Sanji. "So that was you..." Oars readied his fist, but the other strawhats already formulated a plan to knock the giant off his feet. Zoro ran off with the column Frank turned into a nun chuck, telling Robin to lock the giant's joints. As he passed Dorothea, he just said a simple "Keep doing whatever the hell you did earlier, keep him confused." She responded with a simple nod, and held her palm out towards the giant once again, inducing, for a human, a moderate migraine. Oars was already caught off guard by Usopp firing some sort of bullet that caused his right hand to slip from underneath him. With the added migraine-inducing frequency Dorothea was releasing, Oars was blind to the other strawhats making their way for him.

Forcing Sanji to kick him up towards Oars, Zoro slammed the column nunchuck into Oar's left arm. The giant's arm twisted behind his back at which point Robin made sure it stayed in place by conjuring a multitude of hands to lock the giant's joints, just like Zoro requested.

The giant was losing his footing, a feather would be enough to knock him off his feet. That feather came in the shape of Franky and Chopper running up a staircase that Franky was building as they ran. Once they reached the giant's head, side by side they punched Oar's in the head. The giant was now standing by one leg. Sanji was the first to act, running up to the giant, kicking him in the ankle with such force that Oar's flipped in the air before crashing into the bridge nearby. The giant, with his head on the ground, laid in front of the Straw hats. "You bastards! Now you got me mad! I'll send you flying!" He threatened. Huffing, he continued, "Prepare yourselves! I'm going to flatten you all!" Getting increasingly frustrated at his lack of mobility, he yelled out, "Even your bones will be gone!"

"He needs to work on his trash talk," Dorothea said to no one in particular.

Within a swift motion, it looked like Oars was about to flip himself upright. "Here he comes!" To the Straw hats delight, Oars was unable to move due to his horns getting stuck in the ground. Everyone held the same menacing aura upon the realization Oars was not able to defend himself.

"Aah, so you're stuck?" Frank smiled, walking towards the giant, with the rest of the crew following suit. Each of them laying down some sort of attack, whether it was Franky's column nunchucks or Zoro's blades. Their attack on an immobile Oars, unfortunately, led to the giant being pushed around so much that his horns were freed. The giant was not pleased with the Straw hats and forced them to retreat once he got topside again.

As the Straw hats were running from Oars, Usopp had the idea to distract the giant. "Wow! Look, a bunch of meat! Over there!" The giant stopped immediately, scanning the area for the aforementioned meat.

Chopper joined in, "Wow, it looks so good!"

For the period that Oars was distracted by the promise of meat, Zoro and Franky made their way behind the giant and used their respective weapons to bring the giant to his knees. Franky aptly named the attack "Knee Crush!"

Franky and Zoro made their way back to the group in front of the giant. "We're not gonna lose! We just gotta wait until Straw hat kicks Moria's ass! Come on get those shadows, Straw hat!"

'_So that's where Luffy has been. I know being named a shichibukai means that the person is strong enough for the Marines to want them on their side… But if Luffy already took down Sir Crocodile then he's got a shot against Moria.'_

"Why do we have to wait?" Zoro asked Franky, "We just need to beat this guy."

Franky took a moment to respond out of shock, "Hey! Weren't we just slowing this monster down so he wouldn't get in the way of Straw hat!? Are you seriously trying to win!?"

"There's no meat… My knees hurt…" The giant mumbled

Zoro readied his blade. "You have to finish the fights you start."

"He's not just a giant; He's a zombie, too! The only option we've got is to purify him!" Usopp reminded the group frantically.

Franky beamed at the swordsman. "That's right, Zoro! Just kill time!"

From next to her, Dorothea could hear Robin let out a little laugh. She admired Robin for always keeping her cool, no matter the circumstances, Robin always appeared calm and calculated. Dorothea was quick to learn what emotions were acceptable in the presence of her family, and which emotions to hide. As much as she wanted to deny it, since being with the Straw hats those lines have blurred. Hell, she'll never forget her first day meeting the Straw hats included her having flashbacks to what happened on Minion Island and Sanji trying his best to cheer her up.

"Run if you like, I don't feel like waiting for Luffy either!" Sanji stated.

The giant readied his fist once again. "Gomu Gomu…"

Unsheathing his blades, Zoro got ready to fight. "Even if a dinosaur stepped on it, it wouldn't bend a millimeter. I've heard the hardness of a black sword unparalleled… Now that I've finally got this "superior blade" Shusui, this is the perfect chance to test it out."

"Wait! I'm sure Luffy will beat Moria for us!" Usopp panicked, not thrilled to face off against Oars once again.

"Come on, I'll be your opponent!" Zoro yelled at Oars, ignoring Usopp. He swung his new sword around, testing it out before confronting the giant. "It's heavier compared to my old Yubashiri… The black sword Shusui!" The rest of the crew watched as Oar's fist came scarily close to Zoro, who was standing still, not making any attempt to jump out of the way.

"Zoro look out!" Usopp screamed.

"If it's this heavy…" Zoro then used his new blade in tandem with his other two swords to redirect Oar's punch. After successfully pushing the punch away, Zoro twisted his body into a strange formation. "Santou Ryuu '108 pound canon'!" As he untwisted himself, the force of his blades condensed into a solid blast aimed directly at Oars. The giant managed to dodge the blast, leaving a crater in the wall behind him.

"Not bad for a midget!" Oars bellowed, "If I took that, it might have cut me."

In typical Zoro fashion, the green-haired swordsman wasn't bothered by the insult and was wholly focused on his blade. "There's too much pointless destruction around the cut. I guess that proves I'm not used to this sword yet… The attack power is much higher… Looks like this guy isn't well behaved either." Getting ready for another attack, Zoro placed the blade in his mouth. "You left me something good… Ryuuma, the master swordsman!"

Oars proceeded to try and stomp the area the Straw hats encompassed with rapid speed. "You bastard, I'll crush you!" Forcing them to retreat backward once again.

"Hey, Zoro, don't be reckless!" Usopp chided, "Even if you beat him, the only shadow we'll get back is Luffy's. We still don't know where your and Sanji's shadows are!" It was unnerving to hear that three of her crewmates had their shadows stolen at the hands of Moria, but Dorothea was relieved that it was only three of them. Of course, Moria would pick the strongest of the bunch to steal shadows from. Usopp continued, "But if Luffy defeats Moria, we'll get back all of the shadows! There's no reason to get hurt by an undying giant! Let's just trust in Luffy and concentrate on slowing this zombie down!"

Zoro didn't move from his spot, still ready to take on Oars at any minute. "I have plenty of faith in Luffy, but he can't do everything! It's trickery! An invisible man, a ghost girl, a man who controls shadows. The people gathered on this island all have abilities that screw with you. Who knows if they'll fight fairly with Luffy."

Dorothea let out a sigh, "Zoro's right. From what I know about Moria, he knows how to trip people up. He's not going to go down easily." She desperately wanted to believe that her captain would be able to take on Moria with no problem, but he's a shichibukai for a reason.

"If Luffy doesn't make it and morning comes, him, me, and the cook will be unable to fight. So, before dawn breaks, even if we only get Luffy back to normal, then it's not over!"

From beside her, Dorthea watched as Franky looked up at the fog covered sky. "We don't even have thirty minutes until dawn," he commented, "The fog is heavy on this ocean. The sun won't reach everywhere."

"So, it's finally morning." Sanji said solemnly, "The fog is our only saving grace… Honestly, things are looking bad."

The whole ship began to rock, enough to cause Dorothea to stumble; luckily, catching herself before she could fall flat on her face. The crew stared into the now exposed sky, the safety blanket of fog gone. "Fuck the fog has lifted…" Dorothea said through clenched teeth.

The crew's eyes were pulled towards Oars' stomach as one of his stitches was pulled away like it was a curtain, only to reveal a familiar face. "Kishishishi! This refreshing night air is a pleasant surprise. It'll be dawn soon." Moria smiled. "Can you really afford to waste time?"

***Hidoi Henzutsu - awful migraine **

**Is the passage of time even real anymore? I didn't even adjust to May and now it's June. And in a couple of months, I'll be in college? Wack. 2020 really doesn't feel real. Although as it is June… Happy Pride Month! I would be celebrating pride with my friends (all of us strangely coming out one by one as not straight over the last few years), but I'll settle for rewatching House M.D. for Thirteen.**


	10. The Race Against the Clock

_The crew's eyes were pulled towards Oars' stomach as one of his stitches was pulled away like it was a curtain, only to reveal a familiar face. "Kishishishi! This refreshing night air is a pleasant surprise. It'll be dawn soon." Moria smiled. "Can you really afford to waste time?"_

"Of course, that bastard, Moria, is here…" Dorothea grumbled to herself. Her voice drowned out by Usopp's shrill voice freaking out about Moria.

"M-Moria! Why is he here!? Where's Luffy!?" The sharpshooter choked out, as the shock of the discovery of Moria sent him tumbling towards the ground. Dorothea caught him before he could fall as the two shared a pained look.

Sanji looked back at the two. "Wait, where's Moria?"

Dorothea pointed towards Oar's center. "He's in Oars' stomach… It doesn't look like he's doing much… Just mindlessly taunting us." the crew's eyes were pinned to the oddly shaped Moria, hiding within the confines of Oars'. One thought was swimming through each of their thoughts.

"Then, where is Luffy? Was he beaten…" Sanji trailed off, speaking the words everyone had been plagued by.

Chopper lifted his chin. "Luffy would never get beaten!" The reindeer cried.

Dorothea's brows were knitted together, her teeth clenched. She didn't enjoy entertaining the possibility that her new captain was down for the count, but the reality of the situation forced her to consider all foreseeable outcomes. "I don't like the idea either, Chopper-sa, but we have to be open to that being a possibility."

The blonde woman couldn't help but let a little smile slip past her lips as she watched Oars discover Moria as well. "Ooooh! A cockpit!? My stomach is a cockpit!" The giant said in awe, "That's so cool! I'm like a robot!"

From inside the cockpit, Moria let out a laugh. "I'll give you guys a chance to fight me. If you beat me, all the shadows can be released. Come at me with everything you've got! But if you don't beat Oars, you won't be able to get me!"

"That's dirty, you bastard!" Usopp yelled back.

"We can't purify Oars without beating Moria…" Chopper reminded the group, "But Moria is inside Oars!"

Taking a drag of his cigarette, Sanji said, "But now both of our targets are here."

"We've gotta do it!" Zoro added on, before turning to Usopp, "If a little isn't enough, then go find a mountain of salt!" The rest of the Straw Hats started to approach Oars and Moria, while Usopp went his own way. "We've got no choice but to purify Oars! We'll weaken him as much as we can!"

"Okay! Got it! I'm pretty sure there is a kitchen in that first mansion! There should be plenty of salt there… I'll go grab it!" Said Usopp as he ran towards his destination. He was almost inside the mansion when Oars' arm shot straight through the mansion. To the crew, it looked like Usopp had been hit as well. The pain Dorothea was feeling, the thought that both Luffy and Usopp could be gone, fueled her anger towards Moria. A man that she once believed to be a nonthreat was now that top of her hit list. All she could hear were the muted cries of her friends and a constant ringing tone. Until a voice snapped her out of her daze.

"He is alright!" She knew the voice; once she had heard a voice, it was impossible for her to forget it, but remembering who it belonged to was a different story. "My deepest apologies for being late! I thought a large amount of salt would be necessary, so I was gathering it!" The formality of his speech was a dead giveaway.

"Brook-sa!" Dorothea's eyes lit up when she saw the skeleton standing atop the rubble with a giant bag of salt in one hand and Usopp in the other.

"Brook!? You can still move!?" Franky questioned.

"I certainly was badly wounded," Brook responded. It was hard to tell that Brook was even in a fight, nothing about his appearance gave away his injuries, not even his delicate clothes. "I dragged myself to the kitchen in search of salt. On the way there, I found some milk that restored me to this state!"

Robin curiously watched the blonde girl next to her quietly pull out a notebook and pen from her back pocket and jot down the words: _Milk fixes everything (Maybe ask Law about this when we see him again)_. Robin was already hardened to the absurdity of any Straw Hat adventure, but it was almost heartwarming to see Dorothea adjust in her own way.

As she pocketed the notebook and pen, Sanji spoke up: "Well… Either way, we've managed to get a bunch of salt. Our way to the kitchen has been sealed off, so Brook's salt is our last hope!"

"We have no time! Let's go!" said Zoro, acting as the group's designated leader, "Before morning comes… If we get this salt into that monster's mouth and beat the crap out of Moria, we win."

"Kishishishi!" Moria's hyena-like laugh filled the air. "Be thankful I've decided to join the battle! And be aware… I am not longer just a passenger! I'll show you your worst nightmare!"

Brook pointed his sword up towards Moria, but his words were angled towards the Straw Hats. "Please let me fight by your side! I will give you my all! I do not believe retrieving my shadow is a debt I can easily repay! But I will do my best!" He made his point while twirling around and eventually wearing himself out.

Dorothea smiled at the lively skeleton, "Take it easy, Brook-sa. But right now, make sure you keep that salt near you at all times." The girl watched as Usopp and Franky combined their attacks together to create a flaming bird that was headed towards Oars out of Usopp's pellet. She immediately thought of a way to add to the creation. Just as the bird was nearing Oars' face, by rearranging the sound from the battlefield, she created an ear-piercing screech that emanated from the flaming bird. Franky and Usopp gave the blonde a thumbs-up and a smile when they heard her addition.

Oars, although being controlled by Moria, still fell for Dorothea's plan as in an attempt to swat the bird away from him, he only got more burned. Flames littered his arm, before slowly dying down.

On the other side of the battlefield, Zoro chopped up a nearby tower into pieces, while Sanji kicked each of the slices towards Oars. The giant once again swatted the annoyances away. The tower pieces came tumbling down towards Robin, Franky, Usopp, Brook, and Dorothea, forcing them to try their best to dodge the rubble. An activity that Dorothea was getting tired of. Her leg was still in pain from when she was trapped under debris.

Before the debris even settled, Dorothea could hear Sanji's voice. "Crap! He used it against us! Hey, are you guys alright!"

Dorothea amplified her voice, trying to project it over the rubble. "For the most part, we're fine! But if I get caught under one more crumbling building, I may just lose my mind!" She was sure that she must have broken some record by this point.

The next thing she knew, Franky was being catapulted towards Moria, getting ready to blast Moria in his face. Just as Franky fired, Oars swiftly dodge the blast. Using the momentum from his dodge, Oars held himself up by his hand and used his leg to swat Franky into a surrounding building. Franky's broken body fell from the building, leaving him face up on the ground. It looked like Oars was going to finish him off by stomping on him, but a lonely storm cloud appeared and electrocuted Oars.

Dorothea picked out the words "Climatact" and "Nami" from Sanji's rambling. Sure enough, when the girl looked atop the bridge behind her, there stood Nami with her climatact in hand. The blonde let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding in. Seeing Nami relatively unharmed was a relief and even better was that she was no longer wearing a wedding dress. All the commotion Sanji was making, alerted Oars to Nami's presence.

Realizing Franky was still stuck near Oars, Dorothea used the giant's short attention span to her advantage and ran over to Franky, gently picking him up and carrying him towards the others. Dorothea watched as Oars stretched his arm, hitting the bridge Nami was standing on. Luckily for the navigator, she was caught by two chains of arms Robin created using her devil fruit.

The rest of the crew was just as surprised that Oars was able to stretch his body just like Luffy. "If he can stretch like Luffy-sa, then why wasn't he using that power before?" Dorothea questioned. To her, it felt like Oars and Moria were just playing with them at this point, which she knew was most likely the case, but it nonetheless bothered her.

"It was Moria… He did something!" Zoro pieced together. Right after he spoke, Oars launched another attack at the Straw Hats. The giant stretched his leg towards the Straw Hats at a rapid pace. Dorothea tried her best to move her and Franky away from the impending leg, narrowly dodging the attack. Oars didn't leave the crew much time to recover as he immediately jumped into the sky and rocketed his ever stretching head towards the ground. Dorothea eventually had to resort to treating Franky like something more akin to a sack of potatoes than a valuable friend. As the smoke cleared, Dorothea whispered a soft sorry to Franky.

"Damn!" Sanji exclaimed, "What's going on!? His attacks are so much stronger now."

Zoro gritted his teeth together. "Oars doesn't have that power, but yet he still stretched… What did you do Moria!?"

Another bout of Moria's maniacal laugh could be heard from the ground. "That's right! This is the nightmare I'll show you!" the shichibukai started, "The kage-kage power, 'shadow revolution'! It's great isn't it!"

"So, he's calling this a revolution, huh?" Dorothea murmured to herself, "Not quite how I would phrase this."

"The shadow is the subordinate to the body. That is common knowledge-" Dorothea raised an eyebrow at Moria's comment. Her shadow was her shadow and that was it. All she knew was that she was not going to let Moria anywhere near it. "-The body and the shadow must have the same shape…. That's the law of nature. But now, the shadow that should be following Oars has been possessed by my shadow and is under my control. I can change the shape of Oars' shadow. But now the shadow must have the same shape! And rather than the shadow changing to match the body, the body matches the shadow and transforms. That is the shadow revolution."

Dorothea's mouth hung open as she heard Moria's explanation. "It was nice of him to give us a rundown of his power, but this isn't looking good for us. If he really can shape Oars' shadow into anything then attacking him will be a pain if we don't immobilize him."

Sanji nodded. "So, he hasn't turned into a rubber man, yet he can freely transform his body. Give me a break already!"

"Kishishishi! He's more trouble than just rubber!" Moria chuckled from the cockpit. Oars' shadow began to shift, indicating that he was preparing another attack. "If I make his shadow round, then Oars becomes round!"

The crew watched as the giant was forced into a spherical shape. It started to roll towards them forcing the crew to run from the giant, but he stopped in his tracks. "Hey, wait a second, master! Please don't mess with my fight!" Oars pleaded. Dorothea thanked whoever was out there that all the zombies kept their original host's personality. Moria apologized for his behavior and encouraged Oars to crush them one by one.

Zoro used this time to run towards Oars, ready to take him on once more. Dorothea and Chopper both yelled at him for trying to approach him by himself. Chopper looked towards Dorothea, hesitating for a moment before speaking. "Dorothea, I think I've heard you mention once or twice that you are somewhat familiar with medicine and anatomy."

The blonde stared back at the reindeer in confusion. "More so anatomy than medicine, what are you getting at."

"It would be easier to take down Oars if we could pinpoint a weak spot based on his death or maybe any body parts that were stitched in. I was wondering if you had noticed anything off about Oars"

"Ah! You're a genius, Chopper-sa!" Dorothea beamed. "I haven't noticed anything of that nature yet as I was a little busy trying not to die! I'd be honored to help you, doc!"

"It's not like that compliment makes me happy or anything!" Chopper said in a musical voice, clearly thrilled by the compliment.

Dorothea looked behind them at Robin, Nami, Usopp, and Brook all discussing something. "We'll have to let the others take over for a second while we examine Oars." The blonde scooped Chopper up into her arms. "Alright doc, what should we examine first?"

Chopper adjusted himself so that he was comfortable in her arms. "First off, we should find out his original cause of death that might help us figure out what his weak point is." The two watched as Brook was launched towards Oars at an incredible speed while being a conductor for Nami's lightning. The skeleton pierced the giant's arm, leaving a hole in the giant's shoulder.

Chopper wiggled out of Dorothea's arm and started to climb atop her head. "Hey, doc, what are you-"

"Look at the arm Brook just hit." Thankfully, the rest of the Straw Hats were wearing Oars down, bit by bit, leaving Chopper and Dorothea to microanalyze the giant.

"There's something around the stitches… The skin looks completely black, it's as if the skin there is dead" Dorothea responded, she was nowhere near as knowledgeable as Chopper, but she could tell when something was off.

"Mhm. I bet Oars originally died of hypothermia. The frostbite would have led to autoamputation in some places, like that entire arm- Wait! Huh!? Moria is here!" Dorothea could hear the fear in Chopper's voice towards the end. As Dorothea looked away from Oars and towards the other strawhats, she was immediately greeted by Moria stealing Robin's shadow.

"Shit! We need to figure out a way to beat both of them before the sun rises!" Dorothea cursed before focusing back on Oars, "We don't have the privilege to worry over our friends right now. We have to focus on taking down Oars… Alright, we've figured out he died due to the cold and that his right arm isn't really his…" The blonde watched as Oars jumped into the air, his wounds in full view. "Wait, Chopper-sa, what if we focused on his old wounds. Instead of focusing on causing more damage, we should focus on exploiting his past weak spots."

Chopper nodded. "You're right! If we focus on his right arm than we can cut his attack power in half."

"Alright, now we just need to tell the others."

"I've got an idea!" Chopper said, proudly. He regaled his plan to Dorothea, that if they could reach Oars' right shoulder then they could get the others' attention while also attracting Oars' attention. Once Oars tries to grab them or swat them off, Chopper would act as a distraction while Dorothea would jump out of the way and start to work on loosening the stitches on his arm. As soon as Chopper was able to, he'd attack the right arm and help Dorothea, hopefully, aided by some of the others.

Dorothea grabbed the reindeer off her head and held him tight in her arms, starting to ascend into the sky, once again using the sound around her to power her initial jump and then firing sound towards the ground allowing her to double jump onto Oars' right shoulder. She set Chopper down and shot a sound bullet at the ground between Sanji and Zoro. As the others were rushing Robin away from the fighting.

Sanji was the first to spot them. "Dorothea-chan! Chopper! What are you doing there!?"

Dorothea allowed Chopper to do the talking, who was now in a different form, one much taller, and to Dorothea, a form similar to what she would imagine a yeti would look like. He went on to explain everything he and Dorothea had pieced together. Zoro and Sanji didn't have much of a reaction until they learned that Oars most likely died naked. A strange detail Chopper included, but it seemed to motivate Zoro and Sanji.

Right after Chopper said his peace, Oars finally noticed the two. "What're you two doing standing around on my shoulder, you midget humans?" The giant was aiming a punch directly towards them. Chopper gave Dorothea a nod as she jumped off the giant's arm, holding onto a lock of the giant's hair. She could hear the two from the ground calling for her and Chopper as well as the giant hitting his own arm. Dorothea knew they were in the clear when she heard Chopper's voice.

The blonde climbed the giant's hair until she reached his shoulder again. _'Okay now, how am I going to be subtle about this?' _Then, an idea popped into her head. She manipulated the sound around her and gently started to weave the soundwaves underneath the stitched, gradually loosening them. Looking up from her work, Dorothea watched as Chopper was catapulted towards Oars' right arm- thankfully not aimed towards her- by Sanji. Chopper's attack left a giant hoof mark on his right arm and knocked Oars back.

"It's definitely working! Pain is the signal for the body to protect itself. Without that, there can't be strength at all!" Chopper remarked.

Dorothea was knocked off the giant's shoulder as he jumped into the sky once again. She tried to angle herself so that her feet were facing the ground, so she could soften her landing, but her limbs rag-dolled in the air. _'Shit, I guess I never realized how worn out I was.' _ Was the last peaceful thought she had before Oars roared "Gomu Gomu no Gatling!" Dorothea was pushed to the ground by a barrage of punches. Only feeling the sensation of having her wind knocked out of her before her vision went blank.

Her hearing came back first, she could hear numerous new voices. As well as some welcoming familiar ones. Before she opened her eyes, she smiled. Her friends were alright. Opening one eye she stared up at the sky, it wasn't quite dawn yet, but they didn't have much time left. Picking herself up, she discovered the others besides Nami and Usopp, waking up as well. There were a bunch of new people in the distance, but Dorothea assumed those must have been the shadowless residents of Thriller Bark.

The group quickly devised a plan to intercept Oars and immobilize him. Dorothea went with Sanji and Chopper towards the giant chain that was clearly the helm's chain, despite its original purpose, it was the perfect way to straighten Oars' back. The three would have had to climb up a tower that was connected to the bridge that the pulley system was anchored off, however, Dorothea thought of another idea. "Hey, quick thought. What if I just carried you guys up there?" Chopper nodded his head and was about to agree with her but was cut off by a certain cook.

Clasping his arms together, he looked at her with hearts in his eyes. "Dorothea-chan! How I would love to be held in your arms-" His eyes trailed down towards her right leg; a giant bruise had formed around the area where it had been crushed. "But, you're already so injured. I don't want you to hurt yourself for the sake of saving us a few seconds."

"A few seconds might be the difference between life and death for you and the others if we don't return your shadows by morning. Now come on, we don't have time to waste!" Dorothea quickly swept Sanji off his feet, carrying him bridal style, while Chopper was being held by Sanji. Not wasting a moment, Dorothea leapt into the air and continued to jump higher and higher. As she approached the bridge, she checked on the two people in her arms. Sanji was half-conscious, blood dripping out of his nose. Of course, Chopper was trying to stop the bleeding by stuffing some tissues in his nose. Dorothea let out a soft chuckle at the sight and jokingly mumbled, "You better not get any blood on my clothes."

Which was immediately countered by Sanji yelling, "I'd never allow myself to tarnish your beautiful clothes, my angel!"

"Not an angel-" Dorothea sighed, finally reaching the bridge. "Alright boys, we've reached our final destination. Looks like you're up Sanji-sa!" She said, dropping the two unceremoniously onto the ground.

Picking themselves off the ground, Chopper was the first to speak. "Franky and Usopp have already frozen Oars' legs, so all Sanji has to do is wrap the chain around Oars."

The cook nodded and jumped off the bridge and towards the chain. In one swift kick, the chain went flying towards Oars; the chain stuck under the giant's right arm and wrapped around his head. Dorothea and Chopper cheered Sanji on from atop the bridge. As the giant was trapped, Luffy launched himself towards Oars, preparing an attack that Dorothea could make out as "Gear third: bone balloon." Oars' spine would need to be straightened in order for the attack to achieve its full power. Dorothea glanced over at the reindeer next to her, his eyes kept darting to Oars' stomach.

"Is something wrong, doc?"

"Oars needs to pull his stomach in order for his spine to be completely straight," Chopper replied.

Dorothea knew that from this height, neither of them could do anything about it, but she did see the perfect answer to their little dilemma. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Dorothea amplified her voice. "Roronoa-sa! Force Oars pull in his stomach!"

The two heard a faint, "Leave it to me," from the ground. Zoro slashed at Oars' stomach, easing the doctor's worry. The giant was now in the perfect condition to have his spine straightened. With everything in place, Sanji cranked the helm chain's lever and no matter how much Oars resisted, his back was completely straight.

All that was left, was for Luffy to hit Oars. The captain was quickly flying towards Oars, his inflated forearm, and fists in front of him. Oars tried to counter Luffy's incoming attack by charging an attack of his own, but his right arm was too severely damaged from earlier. The physical damage done to the arm went unnoticed since the zombie was unable to feel pain. Luffy closed in on the giant yelling, "Gomu Gomu Gigantic Bazooka!" The impact of his fists meeting with Oars' caused the giant's spine to crack and break under the intense stress. A sickening snap could be heard throughout the ship.

The crowd of unfamiliar people Dorothea heard early cheered for Luffy, "He did it!"

A louder, more feminine voice led the cheer. "They won! They really did it this time!" The source of the voice was a woman with pink hair that would make a carnation envious. It was hard to tell from her height, but Dorothea was sure she must have been the leader of the strange group that rallied behind Luffy.

The young Donquixote was pulled back into reality by Chopper. "He's still conscious… The bones in his spine must be shattered but we still couldn't destroy him. This ability makes a complete mockery of life."

Dorothea gave the reindeer a reassuring pat on his hat. "Hopefully, once we're done here. Nothing like this will be replicated again…" The blonde said in hopes to cheer up her friend, but when she looked at him, she caught herself squinting due to a certain brightness. "Shit… The sun."

Chopper looked up at the girl in freight. "But the others still don't have their shadows!"

"It'll be alright, I promise…" Dorothea picked up her small friend. "For now, let's just join the others on the ground. We'll be more helpful down there." Right as Dorothea made the first jump off the bridge, Moria began to overload himself on shadows. A steady stream of shadows were being pumped into his body, making him grow twice in size. His legs were no longer being able to fully support his body. Dorothea and Chopper stared at the monster, their mouths agape. Dorothea was so shocked at what Moria had become that she started to let herself fall, instead of gently jumping down one step at a time. Luckily, Chopper's little scream reminded her she has to actually use her powers in order to painlessly jump in the sky.

As they continued their descent, the two could hear people screaming in fear, people losing all hope. Of course, if one looked closely, Moria was struggling to keep those shadows in his body, in fact, the shichibukai could barely move. Most of the random foot soldiers ran off into the forest once Moria punched the ground, splitting Thriller Bark apart.

By the time the two landed, Luffy was already powering up gear second. Dorothea gently set Chopper down and watched as her captain took on Moria. With each attack Luffy landed, more shadows spilled out of Moria's mouth. The vampiric Moria managed to trap Luffy in what he called a "shadow box" which was a dark box made completely out of shadows. And with a swift punch, crushed the box into the wall of the mansion. The box fell along with the rubble. Without wasting a second, Moria stomped on the box with his full weight.

Dorothea guessed from the reactions of her crewmates, that even with everything that just happened Luffy would be fine. They knew his capabilities better than she did, but that didn't wash away the sinking feeling in her stomach. The anxiety still didn't fade when Luffy tore apart the box, revealing that he was still in the game. Whatever Luffy was going to do, he had to do it quickly; dawn would soon give way to morning illuminating the entire ship. People were already starting to disintegrate in the light.

Luffy readied gear second once again, inflating his torso like a balloon. Some of the crew had a negative reaction to Luffy's strategy, worried that their captain is pushing himself past his limit. Dorothea wasn't thrilled at the notion, but she also wanted to return everyone's shadow and it always feels good to see a shichibukai fall. Luffy rocketed himself into Moria's stomach. It was clear that Moria was trying his best to keep the shadows under his control. He covered his mouth with his hands, attempting to force the shadows to stay inside him, but there were still some spilling out from between his fingers.

The pink haired woman from before attempted to call out to her shadow, even if it meant she was slowly being eaten by the sun. Her voice inspired others to call out for their shadow to return to them. With another hit in the stomach, Moria was knocked over. The tower that hung over the shichibukai fell on him, right across his neck, finally forcing all of the shadows out of his body.

Since the tower fell, the sun was now in full view, meaning people whose shadows hadn't returned to them were starting to fade away. Dorothea and the other Straw Hats panicked as they looked at Zoro, Sanji, and Robin all starting to disintegrate in the sun. The sinking feeling in her stomach doubled as Dorothea felt like she was going to be sick. No matter how short her time with the Straw Hats had been, they quickly grew on her in a way no other group has. The others started to shout the waning Straw Hats' names. All Dorothea could do was cover her mouth with her hand and stare at the three. The sun had already taken their upper bodies.

"Luffy!" Franky yelled, reminding the crew that their captain was also shadowless, "Why!? We won, didn't we!"

Before the sun could devour them all, their shadows returned just in time. Their bodies were restored to their original state. Dorothea removed her hand from her mouth, let out a sharp breath, and simply smiled.

* * *

**Me: Not all my characters are gay, I promise!**

**Also, me: Accidentally, makes every one of my ocs slightly gay**

**Listen maybe if Oda gave us some good representation this wouldn't be happening. Or perhaps it's my desire to see characters that resemble my friend group idk (this is all because I've been fine tuning Dorothea's past and her timeskip adventures, and I have to stop myself from going "oh yes, but what if we added a little **_**subtext**_**"). Also, the Thriller Bark Arc is coming to a close. After this I have some quick original content that will help flesh out Dorothea's past a little more. Obviously, nothing huge, but I'm introducing a new character who is tied to Dorothea. Then after that it's Sabaody… **

**Quick note, I love writing Chopper and Dorothea scenes, they are bros and no one can tell me otherwise.**


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